A Heart of Steel
by kujikiri21
Summary: Shirou is many things. A swordsman. An archer. A magus. A cook. But the very essence of his nature was lost due to the fire. Now, through an act of desperation, he has a chance to reclaim that essence. His heritage, his knowledge. The love of his family. Let this Sword stand tall, for he walks towards the light, unknowingly seeking to reclaim what is his by right. Divinity.
1. Chapter 1

A Heart of Steel

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Fate/Stay Night.

AN: Hello all my loyal readers. This is a thought that has been percolating in my mind for a while, blocking inspiration for my other stories. If I get enough good reviews, I will will delete 'Sword, Sheath, Steel and Sea' and replace it with this story. I have, sadly, lost my will to keep writing it and have lost what sense of plot and ideas I had for it. If any of you wish to take it up, please give me holler.

Either way, I hope you enjoy this. A Shirou that is more a Shirou, with a few tweaks, but still the same heart-obtuse and suicidal idiot we all know and love.

Please enjoy the show

* * *

The boy staggered through the burning flames, tired and weary. Each step he took, drained him that much more, made him lose something precious to the hungry, devouring inferno.

_Step_.

An image of multicoloured eyes on an ever-shifting face, each one more beautiful than the last, meshed with a soft, yet radiant, perfectly white smile. Soft coos and giggles passed the figures delicate, yet rosy and full, lips as a delicate finger tickled his chin, making him laugh and twist.

An image, a memory, of happy times.

It was cast into the mental void, sacrificed to allow the boy to take one more step, to survive one more moment as the inferno engulfed a hysterical mother trying to save her already dead, and burning, children.

_Step_.

Brown hair, bristly and thick, filled the boy's mind now, bright sparks leaping from it as it rubbed his face. A set of matching brown eyes, ringed with the glow of a flame, accompanied it. Craggy features and an misshapen head finished the image. To a normal boy, it would have been either an ugly or frightening sight. Instead all he felt, was a sense of peace, joy and protection, matching the awed mirth of those brown flamed eyes.

An image, a memory, of safer times.

It was cast into the mental void, sacrificed to allow the boy to take one more step, to survive one more moment as the voracious flawing maw, from the seeming depths of Hell itself, devoured an elderly man, praying before a small statue of the Buddha for salvation. Only for it to fall on deaf ears.

_Step_.

A proud, tall figure with electric blue eyes peered down at him, weighing, judging his worth.

_Step_.

Brown hair again, more elegant and silky, falling down across the face of a stern, yet motherly, face. The matching eyes, lacking the burning of the previous, showed surprise and a small amount of satisfaction.

_Step_.

A sneer on a scarred face with oiled black hair. The sneer was swiftly removed as a slim hand lashed out with a sharp slap across the scarred cheek, knocking the sunglasses askew, revealing eyes filled with the flames of destruction.

_Step. Step. Step._

More faces appeared, more places were seen.

All of them were cast away, an offering to the gluttonous gods in hopes of survival.

Soon, the boy lacked memories, destroyed in his desire to survive, and started giving away his heart.

Love was the first to go. Followed by hate. Happiness. Sorrow. Grief. The emotions flowed from him, paving a delicate path of survival, bought with the feelings of the heart.

Soon, he was down to his last, the one emotion, the one feeling, that was both the gift and curse to mankind.

Hope.

And then even that was spent.

A last step, more of a stumble, and the boy fell, his blank golden eyes towards the ash-filled sky and his crimson hair mixing with the blackened mud upon the ground. There was nothing left of the boy now, his past erased by his actions in hopes of staying alive, his mind was void, his spirit was hollow, his body was broken.

But, worst of all, was his heart, clear and empty, made of glass.

Open, yet uncomprehending, eyes stared at the veiled stars, the clogging smoke and burning heat not deterring him, they were of no matter to him. The screams of the dying and the vicious roaring of the accursed flames faded, they were of no use to him.

A slow apathy took over the small boy, his eyes sliding shut, the soft golden glow, that once had wreathed him, dying down, weakening.

Vanishing.

...  
...

A soft wet noise stirred the boy awake, his eternal slumber broken. He could feel something, something powerful, caressing him, holding him, like a mother does their child. The scent of flowers, something he couldn't put a name to, even over the ash laden air filled with the smell of burning destruction, like a forest after a fire.

Not understanding, and indeed, not caring, his eyes opened.

Black hair, wild and unkempt, surrounded a male's face, his features young, but his eyes, pouring both with tears of absolute sorrow and profound joy, filled with age. Those tears poured even more freely as they peered into his own, a smile, so deep and joyous, crossing the grief ravaged face.

The empty boy, with a heart of glass, let a thought drift over him.

_'I wish I could smile like that.'_

**_Ten years later_**

_"Here I come, o King of Heroes. Do you have enough weapons in stock!?"_

These words, spoken with defiance and challenge, echoed throughout the barren wastes, filled with weapons, of the mighty and the weak, of the heroes and villains, planted in the crimson earth. Steel grave markers buried in the soil soaked with the blood of the defeated.

The speaker, a golden eyed teenager, strapping and tall, crafted from thick bone, ropey tendon and toned muscle, the body of a warrior born. His face, set in a focused and a determined rage, his short crimson hair rippling in the wind created by his charge, even as it brushed and danced across his tanned skin. His simple torn T-shirt and tattered jeans belied his actions and nature as he propelled himself at speeds that were beyond the realm of humanity, a single sword, coloured blue and gold, of magnificent make, at his side as he charged his foe.

The apathetic child with a heart of glass had come a long way.

His adversary, however, hadn't changed at all.

"Don't get confident, Mongrel!" the so-called 'King of Heroes' roared, ripping two long swords from the golden portals that surrounded him, and charged the teen, weapons in hand. His rubies for eyes glittering in hatred and disdain and contempt for the plain dressed teen advancing swiftly before him beneath golden flame-like hair. His black jacket and untucked button-up white silk shirt billowing against his frame and flapping against his black trousers while his polished black shoes drove him forward

They met in the middle, swords meeting swords in a contest of strength, of power, of dominance as old, or older, as the concept of man and sword.

Shoving the Hero back, The teen then swayed back from the scythe-like motions of the King's twin weapons, countering with a slash that would torn out the arrogant warrior's guts, only for it countered in turn by a step back out of range and a sudden lunge.

Back and forth these two warriors struggled. Despite their apparent skill, neither were true weapons masters. There was no knowledgable form or practiced style within their movements, even as swift and powerful as they were. The weapons they used were too numerous, too different from another for it to be feasible to have true mastership of all them. They were, after all, merely 'owners' of these treasures of war.

The King, in particular, held himself as a 'Collector', only the finest of things, be they weapons or wine, found a way into his Treasury.

The boy, on the other hand, while also coming under the category of 'owner', had a particular trick, a side effect of his own distorted nature, that gave him an advantage over the King. One that allowed him to begin to push back the ancient legendary despot.

He could use the skills of the weapon's previous owner.

Clash! Crash! Bang! The ring of steel on steel echoed across the wastes repeatedly.

The King snarled wordlessly, not believing that a mere _Faker_, was able to push him back, to challenge his might. Another was wordlessly blocked by the determined human, driving him back a step. Then Another. Another. And Another.

"Impossible!" The King of Uruk hissed as he was pushed back in full retreat, his twin swords, nameless yet ancient and powerful, barely coming around fast enough to fend off fatal strikes from the Faker's blade, solitary and fragile compared to his own.

Yet he was still driven back.

Finally, despite his royal power, physical might and the strength of his blades, he was sent flying back with an exertion of strength by the mongrel, his two blades cracking and shattering under the force, barely saving his own hide at the cost of their existence.

The Bull Slayer rolled to his feet quickly, his face red with wrath and his breath coming heavily out of sheer rage and hate, directed at the _dog_ before him.

"Worm!" he roared, his power escaping his tightly held control as his temper reached boiling point.

The golden vortexes appeared again, numbering in the hundreds, weapons ancient when the race of man was still young, protruding from them, like cannons on a ship preparing to fire upon the enemy.

The teen had not chased down the King, which would have placed him in range to strike down the arrogant blowhard and too close to be fired upon by the weapons of eld. He had felt something, something that was disturbing and wrong, filling him with dread. He felt he had lost something, a connection forged by battle and circumstance, by blood and tears.

His golden eyes drifted to the bright blue markings visible on his arm, the long sleeve torn from the bicep. They were the symbol of a bond, a bond between equals, between man and woman.

In another universe, they would have been a contract, a way to supply power to the weaker party, set in place by the stronger, allowing the weaker to strengthen themselves at the cost of thee stronger.

But that did not happen here. Here, it was only a mark, a warning sign, a way for both parties to have an indication of the current state of the other. Granted it was made relatively the same way as a contract, and required the parties to be of different genders, but it was all in the intent.

Wide golden eyes watched as the mark slowly dimmed, darker and darker, before it vanished, leaving only his bruised skin to be seen.

_Rin... Saber..._

Something had happened to Rin, to Saber. Whether they were rendered too weak to keep up the connection or, he dreaded, they were killed, or had disappeared in Saber's case, was something that remained to be seen.

The teen hoped to the Root that it was merely a lack of prana.

An ugly bout of contemptuous laughter drew the teen's attention back to the arrogant King.

"So," the despot drawled, cruel amusement dripping from his tones, "she disappeared," he continued, referring to Saber.

Cold chuckles fell on the ringing ears of the teen, his, the teen's, heart pumping hard and his expression hardening in rage.

"Such a worthless woman."

Those words stoked a flame in the teen's chest, his lungs surging like a smith's bellows as his face darkened with hate. Strength spread through his body as his anger flowed. This arrogant bastard _dared_ to insult Saber!? Dared to call her worthless! Not even having the courage to say it to her face!

Flickers of memories of times spent with her flickered through his mind. Eating at his table in his home, awaiting him to come home from school, seeing him to the door, fighting alongside her, defending him from Assassin, standing before him mere minutes ago to protect him from the King's armoury until he sent her to aid Rin.

And this bastard dared to spit on her memory, discarding her like trash!

The teen, full of rage and hate, could feel his circuits burn, filling with power as they reacted to his emotions, surging through his body, making it stronger, faster, more durable.

All so he could crush this piece of shit beneath the weight of his blades.

"Bastard!" the red-haired teen roared leaping towards the King of Heroes, seeking battle once more. He moved fast, practically a blur, as he wielded the blue and gold sword, a legacy of Saber. All the more appropriate to crush this bastard!

"Don't get carried away, boy!" the King roared in answer, two new blades, torn from the Gate behind him, in his hands as he charged towards the teen again.

Swords clashed again. And again. And again.

Despite his strength, his speed, his power, the King of Heroes was being pushed back. Each sword swing from the teen coming faster, stronger, more skilful than the last, the teen's rage and anger driving him onward.

A litany of words spilled from the teens lips as he continued his rentless assault.

"Bastard! _Bastard! Bastard!_ Bastard! Bastard! **Bastard! Bastard!**" the teen yelled, his voice growing louder with each repetition, stoking the flames of his rage.

"**_BASTARD_**!" a final roar, practically in the face of the Ancient Sumerian ruler, erupted from the boy's throat, the beautiful fake sword clashing hard against the crossed twins used by the King of Uruk.

Crack! Shatter!

The three swords met firmly, before cracking and shattering beneath the force of the teenager's rage.

The teen merely pulls a set twin swords from the barren and cracked earth he stood on, coloured black and white, swords forged without the desire to fight, named Kanshou and Bakuya, and continued his onslaught, never giving an inch.

The King felt his own rage grow as he was forced to retreat. This mongrel dared to defy his King! Had the gall to challenge him! He was not worth the time to look upon, and yet he dogs my steps like a rabid hound! How could he dare to be able to fight the One True King!?

"Enough!" roared Gilgamesh, the First King of Man, as he leapt back to create some room to move. This dog will pay for his insolence!

Gilgamesh reached for a particular weapon, extending hilt first from his Treasury.

The boy's eyes widened slightly. He knew that sword as information poured into his mind. An impossible blade. A sword so powerful as to be able to cleave heaven and earth asunder. His mind screamed in pain just looking at it, his body ached and wailed at it's sheer presence. And it hadn't even been drawn yet.

Deep inside the boy, buried beneath the sands of time and the curses of a demon, a golden ember, so small and fragile, began to grow anew after being banked for almost a decade, only reappearing briefly a mere four years ago before returning to dormancy, made to live again so as to protect the host, as Divine met Divine.

The teen felt the pain fall away, disappearing as if it had never been. But that was a minor detail, irrelevant to him. The teen sprinted forward, the swords of yin and yang flashing out toward the King of Heroes as he reached for the most powerful weapon to ever exist.

"Like hell I'll let you!" the boy cried out as he swung his swords.

Slish! Spluuuurtch!

The arm holding the damned blade was ripped from the body of the King of Heroes, and sent flying until it landed, the impossible blade first in the ground, quite some distance from the dueling warriors.

The King's eyes widen in disbelief, "Wha-?!"

The teen didn't give Gilgamesh time to recover, a second slash of both swords was swung, aiming to end the now defenceless King of Heroes.

Unfortunately, the King was able to dodge, leaping backward even as he fired a volley of several weapons from his Treasury. Only for them to be knocked aside by their mirror images, alike in all respects.

The King retreats even further, "Guh!" he practically snarled, "you are stronger than me here," he says, admitting his defeat as he retreats still further.

The teen doesn't let him, charging down the King as fast as he could, knowing he had to end this now.

"I won't-" the teen grunts, pushing his body to keep fighting now that victory was within reach, "- let you go, dammit!"

More swords were swung as the teen was now within striking distance, the weapons just grazing the flesh as the King frantically kept trying to retreat.

"-Damn!" the King curses as he seems to realise that he was unable to retreat, not in this world, not from this foe. He desperately pulls another sword from the Treasury, trying to defend himself.

But the boy, the young man, was too fast, too quick. The teen's sword is beginning to swing, the King's sword rises to feebly defend.

"Huh-!"  
"What-!"

The two warriors voices overlap as a startling change happens in an instant.

The makeshift world of Unlimited Blade Works, a manifestation of the very soul of the teen, rocks violently. Spiderweb cracks,like a pane of broken glass, appear across the scarlet sky, the great churning gears high above shifting out of alignment. A blast of pure light is seen between those cracks, coming from the direction of the lake, from where the cursed Grail was coming into existence.

A heartbeat passes, and the light, a beam of magical power, bright and powerful, destroys the Reality Marble, leaving the two warriors back within the greatly damaged courtyard of the ruined temple.

Before either of the warriors could react, a second change occurs.

A massive spot of darkness, like a void, ringed with a crimson darker than blood, appears. It is easily large enough to be able to swallow a man whole. It is a gaping abyss no one could escape.

And it appears directly upon Gilgamesh.

Right upon the stump of his sliced off limb, it manifests. It swirls, like a whirlpool, drawing in all of those around as a great wind kicks up. The teen could see the King struggle against the void's inexorable pull, trying to plant his feet firmly on the ground even as his skin seems to melt and stretch and the rest of his body begins to be devoured hungrily.

"ARRRRGH!" the King yells, wrath instead of fear in his voice, "YOU STUPID CUP! WAIIIIIIII-!"

The yell fades of as the void spins, drawing the King, deeper and deeper, as it grows smaller and smaller, until it finally vanishes.

Taking the last words of the King of Heroes with it.

The teen, sweat pouring down his forehead, slumped onto all fours, gasping desperately for breath in exhaustion.

He had won. The King of Heroes was defeated, consumed by his own ambition.

"Shirou!" a female voice yelled, high pitched and worried.

The now identified Shirou turned to the sound of the familiar voice, a look of relief crossing his features. It was Rin, supporting, and being supported by, a worn looking Saber.

They were safe.

Shirou closed his amber eyes for a moment, thanking whatever higher force there was that they were both still alive and well.

Rough steps made him open his eyes, looking up into the aqua one's of a concerned, yet hiding it behind a frown, Rin Tohsaka. They stared at each other in complete silence, Saber also eying them both as well she could despite her own tiredness.

"You look like crap, Emiya," she stated bluntly, not mincing her words.

Shirou could only smirk slightly. Typical Rin, as blunt as a club to the face, especially after everything is said and done.

"Then I look _exactly_ how I feel," he chuckled softly, Saber also giving off an exasperated yet humourous sigh.

"I can't leave you alone for a moment, can I?" the King of Knights said, half-mockingly, half-serious.

"I hope you never will," he responded, swiftly and seriously, as he managed to sit back on his legs and reach out to grasp her now uncovered hands, her armour having disappeared, possibly due to a lack of prana.

He looked at both the women before him, one regal and tired, blonde as wheat field and eyes of meadow green. The other with long black hair as dark as the night, hung in two loose tails tied by black ribbons, and eyes of worry veiled by irritation.

He may want to be a hero, even after Archer had told him what awaited him should he walk down that path, but he didn't want to do it alone. If he had his way, they would be with him with every step he took, every decision he made. A balance for his drive, a check against his actions.

Something to fill his heart of glass.

The two girls blushed slightly at his statement and the serious eyes that held their own.

"What happened to Shinji?" Shirou asked, changing the subject and practically _growling_ the name. From what the crimson haired teen had heard, the blue haired boy's actions were beyond reprehensible, even for Shirou's forgiving nature.

If the boy was still alive, he would either soon be dead or thrown to the mercy of law enforcement, if Shirou had any say.

"Dead," Rin said flatly, with a toss of her head as she sat on the cold stones, "I managed to remove him from the putrid pimple that the Grail had become before Saber destroyed it. Unfortunately," Shirou could cut the sarcasm in that word with a knife, "the stress of his body caused by being the Lesser Grail, and it's subsequent abrupt removal, was too much for his body and soul, leading it to give out and die."

"I believe we can call that 'justice served'," Saber spoke quietly, also now sitting on the cracked stones of the Temple, "his actions, vulgar and distasteful, were all in aid of attaining the Grail. He got what he desired, just not in the way he hoped."

Shirou hummed slightly in agreement. Good, that was one less thing on his to do list.

He slowly rose to his feet, looking at the soft light of dawn as the sun began to rise above the ocean in the distance, casting a grey light over them. They all looked at it for a time, feeling as if this dawn represented more than just a new day. It felt like a whole new life was about to begin.

"Well," he spoke to both of the females, extending his hands down for them to grasp, "I believe we should leave. No need to leave even more evidence of this whole debacle around in the form of our insensate bodies after all-"

Schwiiing! Rattle! Rattle!

They all felt the danger too late, their tired bodies unable to react in time to dodge the long chain as it wrapped around their linked arms. The chains snapped tight, drawing them all together even as they attempted to brace themselves on the cracked to prevent being dragged off.

"What the hell?!"  
"In the Lord's name-!"  
"Doesn't he know when to die!?"

The final words were snarled by Shirou, his eye for weapons easily allowing him to identify the chain and it's owner. Even braced, chest to chest with his female companions, he turned his head toward where the chain had originated.

The culprit snarled, his once handsome face partially melted as he extended his arm and chain, Enkidu, from the abyss that had devoured him.

"**Grrrr**," Gilgamesh growled gutturally, his voice obviously distorted from being partially dissolved, "**Fool vessel. Does it not know Servants cannot become the core!?"**

The King of Heroes pulled on the chain, seeming to attempt to draw them in, aided by the howling wind of the void as it drew them all like a magnet.

"Can't you just _DIE_!?" Shirou snarled, frantically attempting to cling to the broken stones, as were Rina and Saber. If it were any other time, it would have been easy, or at least probable to resist the chain and blackened maw of the abyss. But, with all of them on their last legs, they didn't have the power, together or individually, to completely resist it. All they could do was delay it, and hope that Gilgamesh lost his grip first.

Seeing the vice-like grasp the King of Uruk had on the chain, Shirou wasn't too hopeful.

Twisted laughter leapt from the King's throat, "**I won't die yet! I can't die yet! So just stay there, you lowlifes, even you Saber, while I drag myself out!"**

Were this any other time, or any other person, Shirou might have admired such tenacity to live.

Now, he was just pissed off and frantic.

"Lean forward!" barked the King of Knights, commanding even in her weak state, "we may heave the bastard from his home in the abyss, but we will save ourselves. We can kill him after!"

"**Those are my words, Saber!**" Gilgamesh growled ferally, his face twisting even further as his voice was heard over the howling air, "**Go ahead! Your King commands you!"**

"Damned blowhard," snarled Rin, even as she struggled to retain a grip on the ground.

The struggle kept up, the trio slowly sliding back toward the hole in reality, driven by the howling wind and the strength of Gilgamesh's pulls, losing ground despite everything they did. Gilgamesh, however, was laughing in cruel joy, his torso now completely out of the emptiness that was the Grail.

"**Come dogs!**" he roared, "**Pull harder for your Only King!"**

"SHUT UP!" they all snarled, even as they tried to dig in their heels, only barely succeeding.

Finally, with their strength waining, a mistake was made. A small slip, caused by the sudden shifting of a stone, threw Rin off balance.

"AIEEE!" she yelled, falling into Saber and Shirou, knocking them off balance in turn.

The King of Uruk's remaining eye, the only one not melted by the contents of the Grail, widened in shock and anger, realising what would happen next as the chain went slack, depriving him of the leverage needed to lift himself from the darkness.

"**No!**" he roared, letting go of the chain and desperately attempting to grip the sides of the whole leading to the Grail, trying to escape it's dreadful grasp, "**Damn you! Damn youuuuu, Fakeeeeerr!"** the Kind's roars trailed off as he disappeared into the depths of the Grail.

Forever.

The portal was beginning to close as the trio were knocked off balance, still wrapped up in the Chains of Heaven, but it wasn't closing fast enough for their liking. Now off balance, they were soon thrown off their feet, their bodies hanging in the air for a moment.

Then the portal began to drag them, through the air, towards it's gaping maw, hungry for their souls.

Deprived of what little leverage the ground could give, Shirou could only watch as the demise of himself and his companions drew near.

Despite this, his soul, his very being, struggled for a way out. A way to survive.

And something answered.

As they approached the event horizon of the dark portal, the golden ember, deep within the soul of the one named Shirou Emiya, so long ignored, or perhaps forgotten, flared brilliantly, for that one brief moment.

As they began to touch the cursed doorway to the Grail, Suddenly exploded into golden light, making the two women shut their eyes instinctively.

And suddenly, they vanished.

The next day, the golden light was reported to have been seen from as far as twenty miles out to sea. Early reports into the incident by the local law enforcement were inconclusive as they were unable to find any traces of materials that could have caused the flash in the reported area of origin. They were, however, able to find the body of Shinji Matou, dead by causes as yet unknown but are suspected to be linked to the mysterious events that had destroyed much of the temple grounds. Investigations were still ongoing.

Executioners from the Clocktower also looked into the incident, linking it to a sudden shockwave of Prana that was felt as far as mainland Asia. There report, given to the Vice-Director, indicated that an unknown spell, on the level of a Divine Mystery, had been cast in the area, resulting in permanent damage to the leylines and complete destruction of the Holy Grail. Answers were sought from the Second Owner, Rin Tohsaka, only find that she was missing. Further investigations, backed by the intact nature of her home, revealed that her missing status was not of her own design.

With her missing, a new Second Owner was chosen, one Sakura Matou formerly Tohsaka, due to blood status as a sibling to the previous Owner and all of the previous Owner's holdings and knowledge were also bequeathed to the young lady. The Enforcer's had also tied up the loose end in the form of one Zouken Matou formerly Makiri after it was revealed by one of the accompanying Enforcers that he had strayed into forbidden research. Despite his wraith status, he was quickly put an end to after the Queen of the Clocktower and Zelretch had got involved. Sakura was given counselling on Zelretch's order, his crimson eyes burning an unholy light, after it was revealed what the child had been put through and was placed under his personal protection as his Apprentice.

None had dared to gainsay the Wizard Marshall.

The whereabouts of Rin Tohsaka, and Shirou Emiya, who had also been reported missing, was destined to always remain a mystery to both mundane and magical society.

At least in that world.

**_ Percy Jackson Universe  
June 21, 2007  
Washington DC, USA_**

A small breeze blew through the quiet alley, scattering the loose bits of newspaper and other light trash. The red brick walls were scrawled with graffiti as colourful as the rainbow and a small black cat was foraging in the trashcans, looking for the tasty salmon it could smell among the rest of the reeking garbage.

The quiet was broken by a sharp bang and a burning flash of golden light, causing the small feline too flee with a loud yowl of fright.

The sound and light disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving a small pile of tangled and (mostly) unconscious bodies in the middle of the alley. A confused tall red-haired male, glowing a soft gold, was the only one still awake, buried beneath a the two smaller sleeping females and a long chain wrapped around them all.

Shirou looked around, confused as all hell, his glow fading out without his notice.

"What the heck happened?" he spoke aloud, looking around a bit before he noticed the graffiti as colourful and vulgar as it was. But that was not what held his interest.

The fact it was in English did.

"And where the hell are we?"

**_Same time,  
Unknown place._**

"_One has returned."_**  
"I noticed."**  
"We all did."  
"_Unexpected...Can he still play his part?"_  
"Easily enough."  
"**But will he play his part?"**  
"...We will have to see. Even we are not all-knowing."  
"**...What if he doesn't then? What we will do?"**  
_"...Let us see what happens first. If necessary, we will work around him."_  
"And if he interferes with that?"

...SNICK!

* * *

So how did you like the story? I can see this one going places better than by 'SSS&S' story, mainly because I already have a way for it follow, going along Rick Riordan's well traveled path with a few deviations, major and minor, along the way. This will also allow the main character of PJ, Percy, to still flourish instead of getting sidelined like in my other story. I plan to take this up to the end of Last Olympian and, if I get enough requests, make a sequel that will span HoO.

P.S. In case you haven't figured it out, this is UBW Shirou with a few tweaks. Those tweaks will remain hidden, mostly, until I can give you guys a good shock. I just need to have a talk to few of the better guys on this site to get some advice/permission.

Please review,

kujikiri21


	2. Chapter 2

A Heart of Steel

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Fate/Stay Night.

AN: Hey folks. I have tried really hard to pump out this chapter, even if it is mostly filler. Just so you guys know, I had a bit of a problem with magical circuits/prana interpretation and have done my best to explain it. That said, I had to fudge the 'official' numbers a bit as they were too contradictory.

Enjoy the show.

* * *

**_December 17, 2007  
National Air and Space Museum  
Washington DC, USA_**

The janitor hummed a song to himself as he went about his duties, mopping the floors of the emptying museum. It was close to four in the afternoon, maybe a little past, but that didn't deter the cleaner, even if his shift didn't officially start until five, which was the actual closing time that day. It was little earlier than usual, but the boss had spread the word that an inspection was due in the next few days, so they were closing earlier to give all the cleaning staff a chance to do all the little jobs that were generally overlooked.

Not that the janitor truly cared, he was just happy helping people out. Hell, he was just a fill-in for the regular guy that was sick for the last two days.

He brushed his crimson red hair back, sweating a little from bending down to mop the floors of the exhibit, his golden eyes glinting softly in his softly tanned face. Despite that he was wearing denim overalls and firm black boots, he made no noise at all as he moved, except the sound of splashing water from the bucket.

_'It might not be the most glamorous of jobs,_' Shirou thought as he mopped a particularly stubborn spot, likely a scuff mark from a shoe, '_but it helps to pay the bills.'_

Shirou kept humming as he worked, losing himself in reminiscing on the past. Particularly the last few months.

**START FLASHBACK**

Once he had managed to untangle himself from the knot of female limbs and chains, Shirou quickly gathered both of the young ladies, after wrapping a, unbelievably, real Noble Phantasm around his torso beneath his tattered shirt (there was no way he was going to be irresponsible enough to leave something that powerful lying around), and moved quickly through the street outside the alley, his, thankfully, good knowledge of the English language letting him quickly identify a small, hole-in-the-wall motel.

A small bit of hypnotism, something so basic that even he could perform it, and he was able to obtain a room for the night, large enough for all three of them, without any questions or any charge. Shirou felt a little guilty at having done so, but the current situation was beyond his experience and they needed a safe place. He promised himself that he would pay back the manager, in full, another day.

Shirou had just placed them on the double bed and taken a seat in one of the chairs when they had started to stir.

"Hrrrmmph Hmm-Hmm," mumbled Rin as she began to awaken once more, her mind still slightly sluggish from the events that had happened.

Saber, on the other hand, snapped from asleep to awake and alert with a mere flutter of her eyes. Warriors of her time either woke quickly or never woke at all.

Meadow green eyes quickly surveyed the situation, ignoring the fact that her new Master was stirring against her. The room was sparsely appointed, a bed with two side tables and a main table with four chairs, one of which was occupied by a still visibly tired Shirou, near a simple sink with a just boiled kettle on it, was all that she could see.

"Good," Shirou spoke tiredly, the voice bringing Rin fully awake, not used to a male being in her presence when she was still half-asleep and her mind filling with frightening scenarios, until she recognised the voice in time to not react more than awaken entirely, "you're all awake."

Shirou ran his hand through his short disheveled red hair, still gritty and grimy from the battle he had with the King of Heroes, "we all need to talk."

Seeing the serious expression on his tired features, Rin held back her snarking and simply joined him at the table along with Saber.

A few moments later, all of them had a warm mug of tea in their hands as they discussed the happenings.

"Does anyone know where we are?" Rin Tohsaka asked with a frown, "because this certainly doesn't look like any rat-hole apartment I've seen in Fuyuki."

"We're in Washington DC," answered Shirou, taking a few fliers from his tattered jeans, ones he had picked up as he had carried the two females to the motel, printed in English and proudly decrying the attractions in the city, as proof, "in America."

Rin's nosed wrinkled in confusion, "that's impossible!" she announced, "it would require something border lining the Second Magic to achieve something like that. And last I checked, none of us could perform that, let alone try to do it as we were being sucked into the Grail!"

"And yet," interjected Saber as she examined the fliers, "these fliers are real, we are evidently not in Fuyuki as evidenced by the scene out of the window and the signs I can see are all in English. Plus, Shirou is not one to joke or jest, not in this situation."

Rin visibly deflated, defeated by the logic of the King of Knights, before she rallied, "Okay, say that we actually are in the States, how in the name of the Root did we get here?!"

Saber frowned for a moment trying to recall the final events before her sudden loss of consciousness. She could remember being knocked flying, the endless abyss drawing them to it's gaping maw and then...

_A flash of golden light._

The woman King's eyes narrowed. She was far from an expert in mysticism, but she had lived in age where Magic had been more widespread than modern times and her mentor had been a skilled user himself, even if he was madder than a cut snake, but she could not recall anything that could do this and had to do with golden light.

Still, she consulted with the resident True Magus, Shirou not really counting with his mindset and inexperience.

"Do you remember the last moments before everything went black?" she asked her fellow female, "A flash of golden light?"

Rin looked at her Servant, her eyes distant as she, too, recalled the light, almost blinding in it's intensity, causing her to close her eyes tightly to prevent actual blindness. The funny thing about it, was that she could remember feeling it, mystically, much like Shirou's ability to sense magecraft through smell. It wasn't as sensitive or accurate as Shirou's, but it didn't need to be, not with the amount of power that was within the light. It felt like she was in an excessively hot contained area, the mere memory making her want to sweat, the heat was both brilliant and dull, like being in the presence of roaring flames and boiling lava or...

_...  
...Melting metal._

She could now recall where she had felt similar. One of the mandatory school field trips taking them to a steel foundry on the edge of Fuyuki. The atmosphere of the factory had been stifling, making the entirety of the class practically drip with sweat in the first few moments.

Except for Emiya.

Rin turned abruptly to the son of the Magus Killer, scrutinising him with narrowed eyes, even as he flinched slightly at her hard stare.

She had known that there was something odd about the Faker. She hadn't known he was a Magus until the night of his summoning Saber and had just passed him off as a one in a million shot at being chosen, before she had known about his still forming Reality Marble. But he had allowed her to examine him, as a part of the alliance she had with him. Part of it had included a measurement of his power.

To say that she had been shocked at the results would be an understatement.

To understand her shock, one had to know of the relationship between Magical Circuits, Prana and Mana/Od.

Every living being in the world, from the weakest insect to the greatest Beast, has a reserve of life force, often refered to as Od. It is produced by breathing and walking. Every being has it, but the reserves size varies from individual to individual. If a living being were to run out of it, it can be replenished by rest, food and time.

Mana is the life force of the planet itself, produced by the 'world' and is everywhere in the atmosphere and in vast quantities, but, if it is somehow drained, will take years, even decades or centuries, to replenish.

Prana is the source of all magecraft, the source of power that fuels the spell, like gasoline or petrol for a car. Prana is made by _converting_ Mana or Od, through a Magi's Magical Circuits into the power required.

Magical Circuits, the very thing that qualifies a human to be a Magus, a link between the soul and the body, take in Mana or Od, at the will of the Magus, and process them in a certain way as to create Prana. The number and quality of them determine the absolute output of prana.

An example would be that a weak magus can have an Od reserve of five units of power and a dozen Magical Circuits able to handle ten units of prana. Despite his extremely low Od reserve, he can take in Mana from the air to supplement his own weak reserves in order to produce a complete output of _one hundred and twenty units_ of prana, in theory, in one go. However, he needs to insert some of his own Od in order to grasp ahold of Mana in order to convert it to prana, which can take some time, so, if he were to say use some units of Od each time he had to utilise Mana, then he would have only one shot at his maximum output, if he was desperate.

It is generally seen that a Magus has lower Od than their total circuit output by an exetremely large amount, leading any Magi worth their salt to _have_ to use Mana as a primary source for the majority of their spells. On the, very, rare occasions in which the reverse is true, where their Od is superior to their circuit output, limits the magi's capacity. Even if they had over a thousand units of Od, if their circuits can only handle a hundred units of prana, then they can only perform spells requiring the power of one hundred units naturally.

Of course, this doesn't take into account individual abilites or skills, like the Blue Blood Noble of the Barthomelloi and the extreme quality of prana created by the Aozaki.

On average, a Magus has twenty circuits, each capable of using at least fifteen units of prana and twenty five units of Od. Thus having a complete output of three hundred units.

Rin Tohsaka, as a prodigy of a well established clan, had forty inborn circuits, each of them capable of handling twenty five units of prana, and an Od reserve of _**FIVE HUNDRED UNITS**__, twenty times_ the amount of a mature magus. This led her to having a whopping one thousand units of prana as a maximum output.

And this didn't take into account her thirty Crest circuits and the accumulated knowledge and power contained therein.

With her own hard-worked for skills and her considerable intelligence, this made her a frighteningly powerful magus.

But Shirou had blown her out of the water.

Ninety. _Ninety_. As in nine times ten. That was how many circuits he had. It was such a ridiculous amount that she privately, and almost vocally, thought that he wasn't human. The quality wasn't much better, four times her own at one hundred units of capacity.

Thus making his total prana output, **_NINE THOUSAND UNITS_**.

And that wasn't all. To her ongoing disbelief, his Od reserve, that source he drew his prana from, was powerful enough that she couldn't get an accurate measure on it, it had felt so vast and alien that she couldn't comprehend it. He didn't need to use Mana, making his spells come quicker and with less chance of interference.

If it wasn't for his status as an Incarnation, and if he were to have a bit more intelligence, and was an Average One instead, he could have replaced the Queen of the Clocktower as the Vice-Director, given the time and the knowledge.

It had made her swirl in her seat, her mind adrift as she tried to come back to earth.

Her eyes grew sharper as she stared at the now fidgeting third-rate (in practice only) Magus. He was the only one who could have, maybe, done something, even in his completely tired state.

But she didn't know _how_. Transportation/Teleportation was so far out of his skill set that it wasn't funny.

"It had to be you, blockhead," she said, voicing her opinion, "you may have been tired as all hell, just like the rest of us, but you always seem able to pull something out of your arse when we really need it."

At Saber's nod of agreement, Rin could only watch as he hung his head.

"Still," she sighed stretching a little, "things could be worse. We will figure out how you did it later, for now, I just want to contact the school back home to let them know that we will be out of touch due to a family emergency. I have no desire to ruin my perfect attendance record."

"There is a phone just down the hall," Shirou answered her unasked question, "you can make a call from there. Just take a right after exiting the room."

"Thanks, metalhead," Rin smirked slightly and left with a flick of her hair.

"She never fails to surprise me," Shirou said after the door to the room had closed with a click.

"Is it not the prerogative of women to confuse and shock men?" Saber queried with a soft, mischevious, smile.

"It explains why you became King then," Shirou shot back quickly, used to the banters the two had begun when they were still Master and Servant. A quick frown crossed his face as a thought popped up.

"By the way," he said, "how are you feeling? I know that with the Grail gone, and even more so now that we are out of it's area of influence, that should feel a great deal weaker, even _if_ Rin has the prana capacity to keep a Servant around with the Grail's assistance."

Saber frowned slightly, obviously trying to find a way to accurately answer his question, "Strangely enough, I feel fine. Better in fact. I am currently at full capacity, not diminished at all."

Shirou cocked his head, "that shouldn't be right. There is now way Rin could fuel a fully functional Servant, all by herself, without the Grail taking some of the burden," his golden eyes narrowed, "I think we have another avenue to investigate. Whatever the hell I did, because I sure don't have a clue, has had more consequences than we thought."

"Perhaps my unique nature has something to do with it?" Saber offered, referring to her contract with the World and the fact that she was not a proper Heroic Spirit. In fact, she clenched her fist experimentally for a moment, it felt like she was in her actual body. Newly healed and hearty of course, despite the slight fatigue, but it didn't have that subtle feel of the body she used in the Grail Wars, created by the World, had.

"Maybe," Shirou said noncommittally, "that type of thing isn't my area. Ask Rin when she gets back, she would probably have an idea, outlandish as it may seem."

As if summoned by his words, the door to the room was slammed open, a pale Rin in the opening. Before Shirou could ask, she began speaking.

"I don't know how you have managed it, you idiot," she began slowly, stalking toward him unconsciously, "but you have managed something that is completely beyond description."

Shirou looked at the young woman, her eyes wide and manic, and felt his metaphorical spine turn to water as she gently grabbed the collar and pulled him, roughly, into her face, his wide, and completely terrified, golden meeting her manic and bloodshot aqua blue.

"Tell me, Shirou," she said with a crazy giggle, making Saber wisely back away a large step, before her face became a snarl, "_HOW THE HELL DID YOU THROW US INTO __**ANOTHER DIMENSION!?**__"_

**END FLASHBACK**

Shirou winced slightly in remembrance. It had taken Saber five minutes to drag the hellcat Rin had become off of him after that particular revelation.

She had found out by calling the school back in Japan, only to get the number for a bakery numerous times. After the tenth she had given up and, frustrated, channeled her prana for a Gandr at the phone, blaming it for crossing wires. It was the ease that she did so, making a Gandr that would have taken out the whole wall, instead of just the phone, that had tipped her off that something was askew.

Thankfully for Shirou's pocketbook, Rin had managed to cancel the Gandr.

Further investigation by her, with some minor spells, showed that each of them had a much stronger effect than they should have. All of them. To hear her description, after she had calmed down and was no longer mauling his face, it was 'as if a great weight had been removed, that I had slipped my chains and was running unbound and wild, answering only to myself.'

The only possibility; Gaia's presence was completely absent.

The only conclusion; They were in an alternate dimension, so far removed from their own as to have, almost, completely different universal laws. At least in regards to Gaia's influence, or rather the lack thereof.

Rin had been far from happy as, due to their collective knowledge and skills, it meant they were stranded here, neither of them having any true skill in the Second Magic and thus unable to get home. Meaning that she lacked access to her resources, like her library, artefacts and finances. The lack of the family library was somewhat mitigated due to some paranoid, beyond a normal magi's, ancestor of hers transcribing a spiritual copy of the library into her Crest, only up to date to his time though. The heads of the family that came after regarding it as a waste of time, assured in their own power. This lead to her losing a good ten to thirty percent of the books within the real library back home. Many of them being rare and valuable works that her father had obtained during his life.

She had been beyond pissed.

They had then put their heads together and began to plan, resigned to live in this alien place and country after they had all come to grips with it. First item being identification. Hanging around as illegal immigrants, constantly dodging the police and other public departments was really not on any of there desired list of how to spend their lives.

Thankfully, Shirou had been around Taiga, a daughter of a Yakuza leader, enough to know where to look for and, more importantly, _who_ to look for in regards to that. A little hypnotism here and a flurry of cash (made by Gradient Air. Thank heavens for being a Faker, even if he didn't like doing it) there and he was able to obtain three complete sets of 'legal' identity and 'paid' extra to have it inserted into the National Database as US citizens, born in America to immigrants. Thankfully, they all spoke English very well, Saber's especially as it was her native tongue despite using it in an old-fashioned manner, and what accent they had was written of as growing up with their families.

They had gone by their own names, for the sake of simplicity, save for Saber, who went by Altria 'Saber' Aurora.

Because of their physical age, they needed to enrol in school, a public one, which was was easy enough as it was the summer holidays and school hadn't started until they had cleared up the accommodation and financial details.

Accommodation was, again, easy with Rin doing her bit as the hypnotist this time after Shirou had managed to obtain some correct chemicals and minerals and, with a little Alteration, been able to create some high quality gemstones, which were then valued and sold by a series of jewellers. The money was then funneled into an account, which was then used to pay for the house.

Shirou was, once again, mauled by Rin for him not revealing he was able to create high quality gemstones.

It was a nice little cottage, with three bedrooms, a large study, a well appointed kitchen (which Shirou had insisted on. Saber and Rin were close behind, as it meant that could still partake of Shirou's divine cooking.), a combined dining and lounge room, an almost sinfully decadent Western bathroom with a large tub, big enough to fit three (if they were friendly), and shower, again big enough to fir three if they squeeze, and a laundry at the back of the house with connecting dryer.

To top it all off, there was a large backyard and paddock of about five acres with two attached barns and a stable, mainly due to it being on the outskirts of the city, remote and isolated much to the female magi's pleasure.

About the only problem, and the reason they were able to obtain it as, despite the gems, their financial situation was limited, was that it was a small state of disrepair.

To Shirou's eyes it had been perfect and, with a little help from magic, his handyman expertise, Saber's own craft skills and Rin's ideas and knowhow in regards to the mystical arts, they soon had it ship shape and defensible enough to withstand a siege.

And so, they began to settle in, working out a niche for themselves, their reputation as loners and people kept to themselves. Though there were a few rumours that the three of them were a..._cough_... threesome.

Incidentally, the instigators of that particular rumour later found themselves bare arse naked and tied to a light pole in the middle of the business district of the suburb with no idea how they had got there. all they remembered was a dark figure with a devil's grin and it's fingers held out like a gun.

It was just before school had restarted that they all became aware that the world was different than they had assumed.

**START FLASHBACK**

"Well I think that is everything," Rin said peppily, almost skipping down the lane towards their home from the bus stop near there. They all used public transport or walked/ran/sprinted when they wanted to go somewhere, as they neither owned a vehicle, looked old enough to even get a learner's license or really needed one.

"Indeed," Saber responded regally. She was dressed differently than she usually did. Now that they were walking in full view of people, not hidden by the shadows of the night, she had taken to wearing something similar to Rin. A white blouse, instead of the deep red of Rin's, with a black pleated skirt that extended to just below her knees and plain black dress shoes with short white socks. She looked every inch the demure school student.

Shirou couldn't help but think it looked good on her. At least he would if he wasn't juggling a heavy pile of brown paper bags contain that week's groceries.

"I sure hope so," Shirou grumbled softly to himself as he tried to balance the tall pile of bags. Don't get him wrong, he loved cooking, and carrying the bags was part of the ordeal it was to make and create a meal. But, that was when he was making them for himself and his visiting mooch, and teacher, Taiga. Now that there were three people in the same home, one of which could possibly out eat a platoon of troops by herself, the pile was getting a bit much.

The fact that the bags also contained some nice upper-line clothes, in separate bags, and that the girl's hands were completely empty gave him some cause to grumble.

They were just within a small distance of their home when the attack happened.

Shirou was the first to notice it, the thick smell of charred steak and molten metal coming to his sensitive nose. He quickly reacted, dropping the pile of bags and whipping his head around to a small stand of trees that stood opposite the entrance to his home, Saber and Rin were close behind, reacting to Shirou's own motions.

In his mind, a gun fired, waking Shirou's circuits from their dormancy.

"Trace...on," he commanded, a twirl of light wreathing his hands before vanishing, leaving copies of his favoured blades, Kanshou and Bakuya, in his hands.

"Shirou!" Rin called questioningly, wordlessly asking what he had sensed, even as Saber seemed to grasp nothing before going into a into a battle stance, looking very competent despite the lack of a visible sword and wearing a schoolgirl's outfit.

Shirou didn't bother answering as a hollow roar was heard and the air seemed to thicken.

Shirou could only watch in surprise as loud thuds were heard, shaking the earth slightly with each noise, as the cause of them slowly emerged from the copse of trees.

The first thing that the sword incarnation noticed was it's sheer _size_, easily larger than a full-grown African bull bush elephant, maybe fifteen feet at the top of it's wide-set bronze shoulders, and was easily wider than a car. The horns it had were long and pointed, almost like bronze swords than horns of a terrestrial beast. The head was bovine in shape, with a rounded metallic muzzle and wide-set eyes, just like any other bovine creature, but it's eyes, those dark blood-red ruby eyes, were not filled with a cow's placidity. They were filled with a burning anger, a deep hunger, that now mortal herd animal could possess. The clincher on the unnatural existence of it, was the billowing steam, like an old train's engine, escaping from it's nostrils, and the deep glow of a furnace he could see within them.

Just from the sight of it, Shirou knew _exactly_ what it was, the stories of them having a damn good description.

"Saber," he said sharply, whispering, gaining her attention but not taking her eyes off the animal, "back off and get in your armour, fast."

"You know this beast?" she asked, keeping herself place in front of Rin, who seemed to have gone catatonic at the sight of the, admittedly, magnificent, and dangerous, beast.

Shirou grunted in affirmation, never taking his eyes off of the now pawing beast, "yes, but now is not the time. Grab Rin and retreat a safe distance and then put your armour on and help me. When you do, under no circumstances touch the skin of the beast with your armour on, chances are the heat of it would burn straight though the gauntlets. Do you understand?"

A small nod of the head, only just noticable, was all the answer he received.

"Good," he answered, tensing as he noticed the swaying tail grow still and the shoulders tense, "execute on three. One. Two,"

The bull reared back, preparing to charge.

"Three!" Saber and Shirou yelled in unison, Saber blurring to grab Rin and Shirou charging the now also charging Colchis Bull.

Shirou met the beast with a swing of his blade, aimed to slash the throat, hoping to end this before it got bad.

Screeeeeech!

The sound of scraping metal was heard, making Shirou's ears ring as a large and deep cut was made along the throat, parting the metal but not striking any vital pathways. His angle had been off, much to his misfortune. This caused to have to roll to the side, avoiding the beast's attempts to skewer him on it's horns, came back to his feet all in one motion.

The beast swivelled around, faster than the swordsman had thought it was able, before he mentally knocked himself in the head. It was a Phantasmal Beast, a being that didn't confirm to the set rules of reality, he should have been aware that it's abilities would not be constrained by the laws of physics and the limits of the flesh.

It charged again, just as fast, swinging it's head from side to side in an attempt to cut him in half. Shirou swiftly retreated backward. Despite it's deceptive speed, he was still able to keep away from it as he lead it into the empty fields behind the copse of trees.

It might have given the beast room to move, but it also gave Shirou room to execute his plan before Saber got there.

The Bull suddenly snorted loudly, an immense billow of red flame shooting towards him, only for him to leap sideways. A second jump swiftly followed as the bull used that movement to close in on him for another try at impaling.

If he got the chance to pull it off before he was killed anyway.

Another leap backwards and he was back to leading it through the long grass, like a red flag to the bull. It charged him heedlessly, those ruby eyes focused on him and only him. They traced him as it chased, as he ran backward, before he suddenly leapt upward and back. The beast lunged forward, trying to get under his landing spot so as to turn him into a shishkabob.

But as it did so, it seemed to suddenly trip, the ground beneath suddenly sinking.

Splaaasssh!

A hollow roar, one of distress this time, as the mighty Colchis Bull found itself up to its neck in cold water and soft mud, right at the bottom of a sinkhole that had been hidden by the long grass.

The beast was now trapped.

Shirou frowned slightly as he looked down at the thrashing beast from where he stood at the edge of the pit. He had explored the area and his home and found that the empty field across from him was more of a marshland or swamp, making it unsuitable for development. He had found more than his fair share of holes the same way the Colchis Bull had done, giving Rin and Saber a laugh numerous times, until he learned to keep up Structural Analysis whenever he entered it. He had just played follow the leader until he found an appropriate hole for it to sink into and lead it there instead.

The sound of boots on earth drew his attention, making him look at an armoured Saber carrying a now coherent Rin.

"It seems my help was not required," Saber said with a lifted eyebrow to the snorting and struggling beast below, it's flames billowing out in its anger, but failing to do anything to help.

"Required, maybe not," Shirou agreed, "but it is always appreciated," he finished with a soft smile, making Saber shift a bit, uncomfortable with the honest praise.

"A Colchis Bull," Rin breathed, still slightly unbelieving but more focused now, her experience as a magus coming to the forefront, "said to have been created by Hephaestus, Greek god of the forge and fire, and given to King Aeetes of Colchis. These were one of the beasts that Jason of the Argo had to harness and use to plow a field in order to get the Golden Fleece."

She breathed deeply again, "what, in the name of the Root, is one doing here?"

No one answered her question, still confused at the beast's existence. They all just stared at the now halted beasts, it's struggles ceased as it just sat there, knowing it was unable to escape.

"What should we do with it?" Saber asked, "we cannot just leave it where it is."

Rin frowned in annoyance, her face conflicted, "as much as I dislike losing the chance to study such a being, I don't have the necessary equipment to do so, nor do we have a means to control it.

"Kill it."

"No," Shirou said hastily, halting Saber as she readied her unseen blade, "wait a moment, please," Shirou requested as he stared at the beast, a sense of familiarity, for some reason, covering him, like he had seen the creature before.

"What are you-?!" Rin began before choking on air as Shirou leapt from the rim of the sinkhole to land directly in front of the bull.

Shirou ignored the hushed expletives of the ladies and simply looked into the ruby eyes of the beast. The eyes, crimson and shining, stared back. He could feel something, like a wisp of a memory long forgotten, scratching at the back of his mind.

He frowned deeply at the now, surprisingly, placid beast. There was no doubt about, he knew, or rather had known, this beast or something like it. The familiarity was practically banging on the locked door of his mind.

"Alright, big guy," he said in hushed tones, making the metallic ears of the beast perk up, "if I get you out of here, will you attack us?" Shirou felt slightly silly even asking the beast the question, unsure if it could understand the query or even why he had asked it in the first place. He had been fighting the Bull, and even attempted a fatal blow, not five minutes earlier, and now he was trying to make peace with it.

It confused him that he was doing this, but, deep down, some part of him, hidden and forgotten, told him that the bull would not harm him now, that having it on his side was necessary.

The Bull seemed to peer at him hard, hard to judge due to the expressionless gemstone eyes, before it deliberately, slowly and unmistakably shook it's head.

Well, that answered if it was intelligent or not.

"Okay," he huffed slightly, before he eyed the walls of the sinkhole. It was almost a vertical pit, ten feet deep, filled with soft mud at the bottom and the single large stone on which he stood directly in front of the Bull's head.

"Rin!" He called up to the edges of the pit, where the two women looked down with identical expressions of exasperation, annoyance and anger, "can you please make a ramp up to the top? The Bull has agreed not to attack."

Shirou shuddered heavily when the annoyed face changed into a schoolgirl happy grin. A happy grin from Rin only meant pain in his future.

"But of course, Emiya-kun," she chirped, already gathering her magic to perform the deed, "and directly after, we will have a _talk_ about jumping head first into things, **_won't we_**?"

Shirou winced again as the earth walls of the pit slowly shifted shape and hardened. Forget pain, there was going to be _absolute agony_ in his future.

"Come on, Kane-kun," Shirou encouraged the now-named beast, as it slowly waded up to the ramp, "your almost on the way up."

The bull lowed in a brassy tone, like the ringing of a deep toned bell, as it took another step, it's massive hoof leaving the watery mud, before it started to slip.

"Ha!" Shirou exclaimed briefly, managing to move to the Bull's side and use his own strength to heave it back on balance.

At least, that was his intention. As his hands met the bronze flank of the beast, a brilliant spark of golden power slipped from him unnoticeably, making a series of images assault his mind. A place filled with fire and metal, a man-who-was-not-a-man working hard at an anvil, hammering heavily. Shirou could feel the sense of purpose in the not-man's strokes, each one a single step down the path of completion of the object the not-man held. He could feel the immense power the not-man had, one that was so similar to his own. He watched briefly before the not-man seemed to stiffen and turned to look directly at him.

Annoyed and puzzled burning brown eyes met the unflinching and fascinated golden for but a moment, before the sight disappeared in a flash.

Shirou returned to the real world, a bare moment passing as he had delved into the vision, to find himself with his hands just resting on the Bull. HIs eyes looked around in surprise, trying to figure out if what he experienced was real or not.

"Do you require aid, Shirou?" called Saber from the top of the pit, having seen him freeze for but a moment.

Shirou shook himself out of his reverie, "No!" he responded, "everything is fine, just give me a chance to heave this big lummox straight!"

"Very well," Saber acquiesced, her face having a slight frown.

Shirou immediately began heaving the solid bronze Bull up the steep, magically made incline.

When night had fallen, it was greeted with the Bull named Kane now living in the paddock out the back and a seriously bruised Shirou with his head in his arms after Rin had got done with him, with Saber's help also.

As he laid back on the couch, trying to adjust himself so his bruises were not rubbing against the wooden couch, his mind couldn't help but drift back to that brief vision of the not-man he had seen.

_Who was he?_

**END FLASHBACK**

That encounter had been only the beginning, the first step into a new world.

Over the next few months, they had had run ins with various Phantasmal Species that either approached their home. A Cyclops, a flock of Stymphalian Birds, a pack of what could only be described as Hellhounds and a Harpy of all things.  
It was when they had encountered the Harpy that things were made clear to them. The reason that there were so many Phantasmal Species around, why they attacked them, why they all disintegrated into golden dust once killed (much to Rin's annoyance, as she had wanted to study them, a golden opportunity for the magus) leaving behind only a token or an object (much to Rin's joy, planning to use some in her experiments).

This world was still in the Age of The Gods. More specifically, the Greek Gods.

The Harpy, named Sella, had informed them of the 'Heart of the West', the reason why deities hailing from the Mediterranean were now calling USA their home. She informed them of the various spirits that still walked the earth, Nymphs and Dryads, Nereids and Satyrs. She spoke of grand Olympus, hovering in the clouds above the Empire State Building. She gave them her knowledge of the Mist, the force maintained by Hecate that hid this world of the Gods from the mortals.

Then she spoke of demi-gods, half-bloods, and the camp they generally went to in order to receive training from the wise centaur, Chiron himself. She also said that monsters could sense a half-blood, and she thought they were half-bloods.

This information put a whole new spin on their life. Powerful magi and Servants they all may be, but to the eyes of Gods, they were little more than ants. In hindsight, they had been lucky not to encounter stronger monsters than they already had, Sella had kindly informed them, with a bit of a smirk, that each of their scents, alone, would draw monsters like bees to their honey.

Together, and they were irresistible.

That had been about three months ago. Thankfully, Rin was able to place a Bounded-Field that was able to eliminate scents within their home, making it a place where they were completely safe, a short time later, with aid from a now frequently visiting Harpy.

Apparently, she enjoyed companionship with them and the endless amount of shenanigans that went on in the home.

Shirou mopped his brow again, his job done in that particular exhibit, and went to empty the mop bucket and change the water.

After the revelation, while they were careful not to attract to much attention to themselves, at least in regards to the World Behind The Mist, as they refered to the divine and monsters, life merely went on as normal, as far as normal can be applied to the trio, as they were not quite ready to delve deeper into that world until they had more information, something that was hard to come by beyond the basics. Rin continued her investigations into her magic and the possible improvements it had due to being in a world more filled with magic. Saber was generally with Rin or helping Shirou train or just relaxing, no longer having to worry about being a King. And Shirou merely trained his skills, delved into his magic and generally helped people as much as he could.

Which had led him to signing on as a 'filler employee', a person who can 'fill-in' for an employee on extended leave or with a long illness. This, in turn, lead him to taking a job as a janitor at the National Air and Space Museum a little over a week before Christmas.

He glanced at the clock above the sink as the bucket filled. It was a quarter to five. He was surprised at the time, having lost track of it while he was reminiscing.

As he turned off the tap, as the bucket was now completely full, he heard a great deal of noise, familiar clashes and clangs of metal on metal, human screams and an inhuman roar, deep and powerful, echo through the museum. His eyes narrowed.

That was the sound of war and battle, definitely not something that should be here.  
Shirou didn't waste time, sprinting out of the janitor's closet and flying towards the source of the noise, easily identified by moving where people were running away from.

As he ran, he mentally imagined the firing of a gun, awakening his circuits, priming them for the battle ahead.

He didn't know what lay ahead, but he did know that it was threatening the lives of these people.

He reached the balcony of the third level, overlooking a central a central exhibit on the ground floor below, as well as the battle.

His golden eyes took in the battle within moments, designating each participant of the battle as adversary or ally as required. He saw the enemy, a golden lion the size of a pick-up truck, ready it's silver claws to slash at a slim punk-haired girl with a shield and a spear. He saw her allies were not in a position to help her.

"Trace...On!" he declared as his faithful blades were Traced into his hands. before he sent them flying towards the beast with a mighty heaving swing, making them spin towards his foe, as his opening move into the battle.

* * *

Percy Jackson had not been having the best of days.

Hades, he hadn't had a good _week_.

It had all started going down hill with the disappearance/abduction/maybedeath of his friend, Annabeth. As if that had started the ball rolling, the next few events that stuck in his mind were far from positive.

Failing to bring Bianca di Angelo to camp, after she had joined the Hunters of Artemis. Losing to said Hunters in Capture the Flag. Getting into an argument with Thalia, daughter of Zeus. The Quest for Artemis, that may happen to coincide with Annabeth's disappearance. Not being chosen for said Quest, thus denying a chance to find Annabeth. Trailing the group as they set out and then running into a known traitor of Olympus, Luke Castellan, and his current master, the General, as they summoned Skeleton Warriors and failing, dismally, to stop the summoning and, somehow, making himself the target, of all the luck. Then running and meeting the group, in hopes of getting them out of dodge before the 'playmate' the General had mentioned found them, only to be too late. Then finding out the playmate was the _Nemean Lion_, of all the damnable monsters, thus leading to the present...

Fighting for his life against a monster whose reputation for power, toughness and nigh invulnerability was literally legendary, with the threat of the Skeleton Warriors still to come.

Yes, it was safe to say Perseus Jackson was having a bad day.

Thankfully, this dark and heavy cloud had a small, maybe a thread's worth, silver lining. He had managed to figure out of a weakness for the massive cat. It's hide may be invulnerable to harm, but the inside of it's mouth did not have the same properties. All that needed to be done, was for someone or something to pierce the inside of it's mouth, targeting the brain, and they had archers, in the form of Lieutenant Zoe Nightshade and Hunter Bianca di Angelo, that had enough skill to pull it off.

The problem was that the cat was keeping it's jaws close to shut, not giving them a good shot.

Thus leading back to him and Thalia fighting for their lives, up close, against the living leonine version of Superman...minus the flying.

There were some days that it just didn't pay to get out of bed.

"Gaa!" Thalia goaded the lion, her shield facing the beast and making it rear and snarl at the Gorgon's face on it.

"We still can't get a shot!" yelled Zoe, even as she rained down arrows on the beast in an attempt to distract it, "you need it to have it open it's mouth wider!"

"Easier said than done!" Percy called back as his mind ran frantically in an attempt to find a plan. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the gift shop.

His mind clicked, a vague memory of coming here with his mother and getting something, which he had quickly regretted. He hoped they still had it.

"Keep it distracted," he said to Thalia, who nodded grimly, before he sprinted towards the shop, Zoe's yells of disbelief and anger and the deafening roar of the lion of Nemea fading out as he leapt through tables and racks looking for it...

There! Racks upon racks of silvery packages. He grabbed as many as he could carry in one arm, leaving his other free to swing Anaklusmos.

Not wasting time, he sprinted back towards the fight, sword ready and bearing the fruits of his search.

The Hunters were still raining down their arrows on the lion, causing it no damage and not succeeding in distracting it from it's target, Thalia. It slashed and batted at her, a cat playing with it's toy, it's eyes narrowed and focused even as Thalia frantically dodged it, waiting for the moment to strike.

Thalia jabbed with her spear, crackling blue lightning surrounding it, and backed off. The lion pressed her, acknowledging the lightning with only a light snarl.

Then she made a mistake.

"Percy!" she called, distracting herself slightly, "whatever idea you have-"

Percy didn't hear the rest, if it was even spoken, as he noticed the tensing on the lion front legs. It was readying itself to strike her with a paw.

The world seemed to slow to Percy's eyes. He could only watch as the beast's eyes narrowed even more, practically disappearing, as it saw it's chance to kill. A paw was lifted, shining silver beneath the lights high overhead. He saw Thalia notice the move, but was too slow to react.

He was going to see her die. He knew this. He wouldn't be fast enough, the Hunters arrows didn't have any effect and Grover was trying to get the normal mortals out of the line of fire.

He could only watch in horror, even as he tried futilely to move fast enough to stop the massive paw and deadly claws from a claiming a friend's life.

As he saw the paw begin to descend, much like his own hopes and spirits, a weird noise hit his ears, a whirring buzz that sounded sort of like a chainsaw, before two blurs, one black and the other white, whipped past him. He saw the blurs continue on their path, directly toward the lion.

Cla-slish! Cla-slish!

He saw them hit the massive leg of the lion, knocking the paw away, and then keep on spinning away, rising upward toward the balconies. He heard the lion roar, not just in rage, but in pain, and saw, to his disbelief, two extremely shallow cuts on the leg, more akin to paper cuts, bleeding golden ichor slightly.

Somehow, impossibly, those blurs had managed to cut the supposed invulnerable fur of the Nemean Lion.

Thalia, while also shocked, used that moment to quickly back away from the great beast, while it was distracted by the unfamiliar sensation of pain, joining Percy once more.

"Do you know what that was?" she asked, dumbfounded.

Before Percy could answer, the buzzing was heard again, louder this time, The lion reacted, its survival instincts kicking in, and looked towards the source, coming from above, followed by the half-bloods.

Percy almost thought he was dreaming at the sight he beheld. Instead of two blurs, there were now four, two of each colour. But that wasn't the real eye opener.

It was the absurd sight of a teenager, maybe fifteen or sixteen, with chin-length spiky crimson hair, falling towards the floor, feet first, and visibly armed with two curved swords, one black and the other white, dressed as a janitor, in the middle of the whirling blurs as they seemed to orbit him.

Impossibly, he seemed to land safely on one knee in front of the cousins, cracking the floor and stabbing his swords forward at the same time. In reaction, the orbiting blurs shot towards the direction he had stabbed, heading straight for the Nemean Lion.

The blurs streaked toward the beast, this time, despite the increased numbers, missing completely as the lion evaded with a large leap to the side, letting them shoot by.

The teen then stood tall, facing the lion with his swords now poised to strike, and addressed us without even turning.

"Is this a private party," he said, with a grim edge to his tone, "or can anyone join in?"

* * *

Well that ends the chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it. Just so you know, the next story I plan to update is Lord of Chaos. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest you do, as it is the first Campione and Ranma 1/2 crossover to be made.

As always please review,

kujikiri21


	3. Chapter 3

A Heart of Steel

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Fate/Stay Night.

AN: Hey folks. Thanks for all the reviews. However, I would like to clear up an issue, brought up by Heaven Canceller, saying that Shirou is unable to do hypnosis. True, canon-Shirou can't do hypnosis on any other but himself. But this isn't canon, otherwise this wouldn't be fanfiction. If you can bear with me, the reason he can do it will be revealed at some point. For now, let's just say it is a legacy of his mother.

Second point, with 9000 units of prana making Shirou broken, i would have to disagree. Following the Frodo-Jedi Sauron-DeathStar school of thought, there will be enemies that can equal and some can even surpass him by orders of magnitude. Gods come quickly to mind. Is he a step above normal demi-gods? For the most part, yes, but there are the exceptions to the rule and some monsters will give him a hell of a lot of trouble. In either case, there is a damn good reason that Shirou has that much power and it will be revealed.

Third point, yes Heroic Spirits can slightly match Divine Spirits, but they are lower on thee powerscale. Problem is, that is when they are at their full power and true form, which a Servant is not. Besides, I think that the Gods, bound by Ancient Laws and Rules, are limited in some of their responses, not able to show their true power. I can guarantee that they won't have that problem with Shirou (hint, hint).

Lastly, in regards to Rin's knowledge. This is a minor point and I can only say that, as Rin was either preparing for a Grail War, or out of curiosity after she looked into her family's records of previous wars, she read up on her mythology. Besides, there aren't many ways any half-decent reader of greek myths could mistake the Colchis Bulls for something else, they are pretty distinctive.

Enjoy the show.

* * *

Zoe Nightshade was beginning to develop a headache.

The Quest, so far, had been more than trying, simply by being in the presence of the goat and Thalia Grace. The daughter of Zeus' attitude was rough and confrontational, making an already stressed Lieutenant of the Hunt snap back, which then devolved into scathing comments back and forth, maybe even progressing to a physical bout until either Bianca, her newest sister, or the Satyr interfered.

The Satyr she disliked on principal, the lovestruck daze that he seemed to fall into more often than not was typical of others that she had met when in the Presence of her Mistress, herself or her sisters. It wasn't appreciated and made her want to hit something, preferably the goat's face, until he managed to shake himself back to normal.

They had managed to work together long enough to follow the goat's magic trail to Washington DC, and had followed it to the National Air and Space Museum.

Whatever teamwork they had was shot to Hades when that _Boy_ showed up. She had begun expressing her feelings on the matter and was on the verge of hitting him, when he began to talk, informing them of the treacherous son of Hermes presence, the summoning of Spartoi and, worst of all...

The presence of the General.

Zoe knew who the General was (_how could she not_), and she knew he _could not be her_e, not with his punishment. An ugly feeling had begun building in her gut, even as she denied it out loud, that the damned Boy was telling the truth.

She still tried to deny, because if he was here, then that meant someone had taken his place.

And she had a bad feeling she knew who.

Things had then gone from bad to worse, when the Nemean Lion had shown up.

The fight was almost impossible for them. It was too fast, too powerful and, above all, invulnerable. The Hunter's arrows shattered on its hide, sparks flew from sword blows and spear strike that still did no damage. Even the Sky Lord's daughter had failed to do more than anger it when she used her lightning.

Though she had to thank the Boy, maybe by not shooting him in the arse, when he shouted out to shoot the mouth. Easier said than done, though.

Then she had seen the boy mutter something to Grace and sprint toward the gift shop, her yells of annoyance and accusations following him. He returned quickly, his sword (her sword) bared and his arms filled with cellophane wrapped products, much to her angered puzzlement.

Then Grace was distracted, fool girl, and the Nemean Lion made it's move, it's massive paw, larger than a trash can lid, reaching up and preparing to strike down Thalia Grace.

And she was hopeless to help. Even if she disliked Grace, she did not wish her death.

Then, a miracle occurred.

Flashing circles spun in front of her and Bianca, buzzing loudly as they traveled toward the lion and striking it.

Wounding it.

It was only light, not even a scratch, but whatever they were, had managed to pierce the monster's hide and fur. Something that shocked the Hunter, her knowledge of the beast telling her that such a thing was impossible.

Her eyes shot up, tracing back the path of the spinning weapons. Her eyes locked onto the figure of the weapon's user as he leapt down, from the third floor balcony, to the battle. As he fell past her disbelieving face, she absently took notice of his features.

He was wearing a dark blue janitor's uniform and a black undershirt, fitting his tall frame, with black leather boots. His golden eyes, piercing and powerful, framed by the sharp features and the crimson wave of hair. In his rock solid hands, was clenched two swords, one black as night, the other white as ivory. Around him spun, what she now realised, two copies of each weapon, buzzing loudly.

His landing surprised her, thinking that he would kill himself, or at least break his legs, in his foolish escapade, only for him to land in a kneeling position, cracking the stone floor beneath, unharmed and then shoot of his orbiting blades in some manner toward the now evading lion.

For a moment, Zoe thought she saw an image, younger and shorter, overlay the warrior. A form of a six year old, bending on one knee, and peering up at her with golden eyes and a slight grin.

She banished that image from her mind. It couldn't be _HIM_. He was known to be dead. The memories of that little one were cherished by her, especially after the **Incident**. Neither she nor the rest of the Hunt would taint those memories by mistaking a foolish, prideful, arrogant boy for _HIM_.

But now wasn't the time to reminisce, now was the time to prepare to fight. The Lion had recovered now, rumbling deeply as it looked at the one that had been able to harm it. The boy stood stoically, both swords idly at his side, Zoe recognising that despite the seeming idle stance, the boy was ready to move and strike at moments notice.

She grunted softly to herself in dissatisfaction. The tide of the battle had changed now. Archery like she and Bianca had been pulling off would be of no use now. She and her sworn little sister would have to fire on the ground floor.

"Come!" she commanded Bianca, briskly moving down the loop ramp leading to the ground, her sister swiftly following, "the battlefield has changed. Arrows will not decide the day, not from here."

Zoe opened up her strides to bring her to the ground floor in a timely fashion.

It wouldn't do for a Huntress to miss out on the kill after all.

* * *

Shirou stared down the massive beast calmly. It was not the most dangerous being he had encountered (Berserker trumping the oversized Kitty-cat by miles).

But it sure came damn close.

Either way, it was currently a stalemate. The monster knew he could harm it, Shirou knew it would be difficult, even by his standards, to kill, without revealing all his abilities to the other warriors. Rin had practically beaten into his head the need for secrecy of their own skills and spells, even in this world, where the Gods still walked.

'Kanshou and Bakuya have heavy 'Anti-Monster' properties,' he thought, his arms both tense and loose, as was the rest of his body, 'which I believed had allowed me to slay all the other monsters that have approached Saber, Rin and I. The fact that this beast has less than a scratch on it, from the attack that has already proven capable of cleaving a monster's limbs from their body, is somewhat concerning.'

He tilted his head slightly to side, he felt the approach of one of the youthful fighters, never taking his eyes of the still and waiting lion, the punk-haired girl if he wasn't mistaken.

"Something you need, my lady?" he said with an unseen quirk of the lip, as she finally came along side, her weapon and shield at the ready and not taking her eyes off the still and growling feline killing machine. His sense of humour had been changing while living with Rin and Saber.

"Yeah," she growled gruffly, obviously attempting to keep her temper, "you can tell who, in the name of Olympus, are?!" her voice practically snapped out at him at the end, mirroring the growl of the hostile monster.

"Perhaps later?" he offered, his face serious even if he hadn't looked at her as yet, "After all," the growling grew louder and the massive cat tensed, ready to pounce, "I think the Kitty wants to play."

The growls were now even louder, practically shaking the earth beneath their feet.

Soft steps entered Shirou's ears again and the scent of the sea entered his nose, as the boy with green eyes, similar to the ocean, stood on his other side, sword in hand and still clutching, Shirou wrinkled his nose a little in disgust, the freeze dried astronaut food that was sold at the gift shop, for some unknown reason.

"Yeah," the kid snarked, "playing with it's new chewtoys."

The rumbling grew even louder again, the air seeming to quiver with the force, as the lion crouched slightly, readying itself.

"I hope not," Shirou responded dryly, tensing his body to move, "otherwise the city may just get decimated by Saber if she finds out her cook has become dinner, rather than making it."

He wasn't joking either. He had seen the damage a monster, a large Cyclops, had received when it had managed, through sheer luck, to break both his arms with it's club, thus rendering him unable to serve dinner that night.

He still shuddered at the memory of the poor being's twisted fate. And that was before Rin added her own two cents.

One by themselves is scary. both of them working together and even Gods would cross the street rather than cross them.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he could the lifted eyebrows that they both made at his comment.

"But enough banter," he said seriously, computing his plans and lifting his blades, "this cat needs to be declawed."

With a rumbling roar, seeing the godling that had dared to injure him raise his blades in challenge, the lion charged.

The respite was done. The fight was renewed.

* * *

_Fast_.

To Percy's eyes, the lion was a golden blur as it charged, the sheer size of it not hindering it's movements one bit as it closed on the three of them. It was faster than it had been when it faced him, Thalia and the rest a short time before.

Perhaps it felt that the janitor was a worthy challenge. Annabeth had said that monsters were drawn to the smell of half-bloods, seeking to challenge them.

The charge ended with a lunge of it's gaping maw, seeking the red-haired swordsman's head.

Cla-slish.

That odd sound rang out again, indicating a wound upon the beast, as the man leapt backwards, seeming to glide away at a fast pace as he slashed with the white blade across the nose of the Nemean Lion.

It merely growled as it kept moving towards the red-haired teen, ignoring the other two half-bloods as unworthy of its time.

_ZAAAAP_!

"ROOOOAAAAAR!" the lion's angered and pained cry rang out as Thalia's spear, searing the air with the power of the storm and thunder, dug into it's hindquarters, not doing any true damage, but still pissing it off.

Enraged, it spun back and lunged towards Thalia, all in the same motion, it's mouth open more than a little.

_Perfect_.

Like Nolan Ryan throwing a fastball, an ice cream sandwich flew into it's maw.

The beast seemed to stumble in mid-air, falling short of a retreating child of Zeus, landing on it's massive paws, it's head hung low as it seemed to choke and gasp, too preoccupied with removing the foul piece of food from it's throat to continue it's attack.

Advantage half-bloods.

The janitor whirled in again, his twin blades striking the beast heavily on the side of one of the back legs, sweeping its feet out from under it. Another twirl, like a dancer, left a long mark of pain from the base of the tail to the top of the shoulder. It didn't do much physical damage, but it put the beast on it's back, still choking on the hideous produce that astronauts called food.

"Aim for the throat!" the man called out, joining us in our ranks.

A split second later, six arrows had smacked into the throat of the beast.

Little known fact, weapons may not be able to pierce the hide of the Nemean Lion (the janitor's swords seeming to be an exception) but damn if the flesh beneath it cannot feel the pressure or force of the blows if enough strength was behind it. See the account of Heracles first labour as proof.

And six arrows, fired at full draw, at almost point blank range, from a Hunter's bow, was enough to force when applied to the soft throat. Especially one already full of horrid ice cream.

The lying beast almost seemed to spasm, like it wanted to hurl or roar, even as it still choked, the force of the arrows bruising the flesh beneath and making it swell up.  
It was slowly choking to death, much like it had before when Heracles had done so, even if it was by a more hands on method.

Even choking and dying, it was a formidable beast. No doubt wanting it's revenge of it's killers before it passed, it rolled to it's paws and lunged at me, murder and hate in its narrowed eyes.

Percy tried to move away, but knew he wouldn't be able to in time, the beast's movements were too fast and fluid, his reaction time wasn't enough.

A blur of blue whipped in front of him, obscuring my sight of the beast, before the sound of sword sliding into flesh was heard, even as Percy was tossed off his feet by a collision with the blue blur, sending packets of cellophane flying every which way.

Percy groaned slightly from where he was thrown, opening his eyes as he did, only to be met by the surprised eyes of Grover, his pipes still lifted to his lips.

"A little help, G-Man," he grunted as he sat up.

A hand was swiftly met by his own as Grover helped heave him up.

"A bit crazy wasn't it?" Grover said nervously.

"Remind me, G-Man, to never tangle with overgrown pussycat again. Ever." Percy said as he looked back in the direction he thrown from.

The Nemean Lion was no longer the frightening beast it had been, laying on its back, twitching slightly, but otherwise still as stone.

Dead.

The cause to it, was the black blade of the janitor, who was crouched on top of the feline's massive chest, piercing it through the mouth, coming out of the top of the skull and nailing it to the stone floor. The janitor's hand was practically resting between the mammoth teeth and jaws of the beast in order for his sword to do so.

He looked like a hawk resting atop it's prey.

"And never get on a janitor's bad side."

* * *

Shirou nodded slightly from where he squatted, atop the chest of a dead Nemean Lion, before he hopped to the side and off, coming to rest directly beside the three girls involved in this disastrous shindig, watching as the beast began to turn to dust.

"Not what I was expecting when I came into work today," he commented as the two males, one of them a type of monster he had yet to encounter (his scent was that of wild woodlands and, surprisingly, goat), joined their team.

The punk haired girl snorted as she glared at him, her eyes literally sparking, "no kidding. Now," She pointed her spear at him, ready to use it if he proved hostile, "who the heck are you?!"

"Shirou Emiya," he responded with a shallow bow, deep enough to convey respect, as he flicked his hands, shattering the his blades into prana, much to the surprise of the group, "temporary janitor."

"Thou art more than that," snorted the dusky skinned female, her face stern and annoyed, "thou hath used Mistforms. Mistforms strong enough to injure the hide of the Nemean Lion."

"So that's what it was," he mused, "I had a suspicion that it was that particular monster, but I generally like to get confirmation before anything else."

The boy who smelled of the sea approached the lingering dust of the monster and picked up the hide, offering it to Shirou.

"Here," the boy said, "it was your kill, so the spoil is yours."

None of the boy's companions looked willing to argue, even if the clear leader of this pack, the dusk skinned girl, looked at the hide in distaste, as if an old unwelcome memory had surfaced.

"I merely finished it off," Shirou disagreed, "it was your toss of the," Shirou twisted his face in disgust, "insult to all food, into it's maw that started the kill, the girl's arrows were the kill shots, and I just finished it off. You keep it."

The boy hesitated, undecided, and looked at his group. They all nodded, even if the leader was reluctant, in agreement. The pelt in his hands turned into a golden brown full length coat as he swiftly put it on.

"We have to go," the curly haired goat smelling boy said, shifting nervously, "the song I cast on the security guards won't last much longer."

"They are least of our worries," spoke the leader, her eyes looking out onto the lawn, "Look."

Shirou followed her gaze, curious, and locked his eyes on an odd group of men. Grey men in grey coats, a full dozen in number, walked toward the museum. Shirou didn't know who they were, but he saw how walked, predatory and powerful. They were not normal.

"Oh boy," muttered the goat boy, his legs shaking a little. It looked like the boy knew them, and was far from happy to see them.

"They're after me," the ocean scented boy said, nervous but resolved, "you guys go. I'll distract them."

Shirou raised an eyebrow. That sounded like something he would have said, and would probably still say now, if the situation called for it.

"No," the leader said firmly, "we go together."

The boy looked surprised and opened his mouth to say something, but the leader turned and looked Shirou in the eyes, staring up into his golden orbs.

"And you as well," she added, looking resolved.

Shirou was taken aback, he wasn't even sure what exactly was going on, and this girl was telling that he was going to go with them to where ever they were going?

A part of him wanted to refuse. But it was only small, a piece of selfishness that was often ignored.

The larger part of him, his very being, drove him to accept this inclusion, to aid them, and ask questions later.

Besides, if this was what he suspected, one of these Quests that Sella had told him about, then it would only give he, Rin and Saber a better idea of the workings behind the Mist. Not to mention it was probably damn important if their reactions meant anything.

"Very well," he answered with a nod, "lead the way and I will follow, but I expect a proper explanation on what in Heaven's name is going on. Soon."

"Thou wilt have it," the leader said briskly, before moving at a fast pace towards the exit to the carpark, "when we have reached a safe place."

The others were quick to follow and Shirou was swiftly at their heels.

* * *

"Well this is just great," growled Thalia as she looked at the abandoned train yard at the end of the line, covered thickly in snow and bitingly cold.

Getting out of DC had been harder than the group had thought. The General had used his mortal forces, mercenaries, and a sleek black military helicopter to trail their van on the highway. It had only been Bianca's idea to use the subway that allowed them to evade them.

Even then, the chopper, like an eagle wheeling above it's prey, had kept track of them, following the train. It had taken over half an hour and two changes of train from them to evade them completely.

Unfortunately, the last train left them stranded at the end of the line, in the cold snow.

"It could be worse Thalia," offered Grover, his teeth chattering as he tried his best to keep warm.

"Yeah," she drawled, disbelieving, rubbing her hands in an attempt to keep warm, "how?"

"Ummm errr ahh," Grover hemmed and hawed, reaching for a possible scenario that was worse than what they were experiencing now, before his shoulders slumped a little in defeat, "never mind."

Despite herself, Thalia chuckled. It was always nice to get one over on the goat.

The group wandered for a while, hoping to find another passenger train. Sadly, it looked like they were so out of luck. What trains were still there, were all freight cars, looking like they hadn't moved in years, if the snow piled on top of them was any indication.

"Does this sort of thing happen all the time on these Quests?" their newest companion asked, looking unbothered by the weather despite his lack of a decent coat. Thalia kept thinking she could hear the soft rattle of chains come every so often from the golden-eyed man's overalls. "The getting lost in the cold, avoiding mercenaries and facing nigh invincible monsters, I mean."

"Yes," they all, minus Bianca, answered flatly. They really didn't need to be reminded of their current circumstances.

Shirou seemed to get the message and returned to his customary quiet.

Soon, they came upon a homeless man, with a scraggly beard, tangled hair and greasy skin, warming himself at a trashcan fire.

He glanced at them, seeming to take in their miserable states (except for the red-haired elder teen. Thalia honestly thought that the guy must have a space heater under his overalls to keep him warm. Lucky bastard.) and gave a slightly feral grin.

"If you need to warm up a bit, you can help yourselves," he said cheerfully, with a slight gesture to the burning trash.

Thalia wasted no time in standing next to the flames, the ice in her veins melting away at the exposure to the heat. The others were quick to join her.

Except for Shirou.

Thalia noticed that he kept a step away from the flames, but close to the nice homeless bum. His eyes of piercing gold examined the bum, obviously wary of something. Occasionally, he seemed to take a deep breath through his nose, almost as if he was trying to catch the guy's scent.

Thalia absently wondered if the crimson haired swordsman smelled fish or spam from the guy's clothes.

"I don't suppose anyone has any ideas on how to keep moving west?" her cousin asked, looking more than a little miserable as he looked around the yard, as if expecting the answer to pop out of nowhere.

Thalia couldn't help but share the Seaweed Brain's sentiments.

"Perhaps contacting Chiron...?" Bianca began, before she was cut off by Zoe's emphatic head shake.

"No," she said firmly, "this will have to be solved by ourselves. Even if he was contacted, Chiron has little sway out here, and even less resources."

Well damn. That just puts us back at square one. Artemis is in chains to the West, with Annabeth possibly involved and a beast so dangerous that the Huntress, herself, had to go solo, and here we were, stuck in the outskirts of DC without a plan or a way out.

Thalia was beginning to understand why Luke, according to the grapevine, hated Quests so damn much. Even her travelling to the Camp in the first place hadn't been quite so bad as now.

"You know," the homeless man spoke, a warm grin on his dirty face, "you are never completely without friends," he chuckled slightly, "so you folks are looking for a ride west?"

"Yes, sir," spoke up Shirou (and Thalia thought her name was strange) as he still kept his eyes on the man, "Do you know of one?"

A greasy hand, covered in a fingerless glove, pointed.

Turning, Thalia noted the train the man pointed out. A large triple decker affair, brand new like it was straight off of the factory line. Wire mesh wrapped completely around it, protecting the many priceless (and precious) automobiles inside.

A decent ride if Thalia had ever seen one. It sure beat some of the freight cars Luke and her had smuggled on way back when.

"Umm..Thanks," Grover started to say as he turned back, only to be met with empty air.

The man had vanished, and his fire with him.

* * *

They were soon on the move, the steel wheels churning and pounding as they pushed several tons of designer cars along the rails, racing towards the sunset.

"I hate to be a bother," Grover heard Shirou speak, halting the rest of the company from separating for their rest, "but I believe I am due an explanation."

Grover winced slightly. They had gotten this demi-god, for what else could he be with that ability with Mistforms, involved in the Quest. A Quest that he still did not know the nature of.

The satyr sighed slightly, slumping to the metal floor and readying himself for a long discussion. The other were quick to follow suit, leaning their tired backs against the doors of the luxurious cars.

Only Zoe and Shirou stayed standing, albeit they stilled leaned back on the cars, in the column across from the other, a gender face-off.

The two locked eyes for several moments, a silent battle of wills. Surprisingly, Zoe was the first to look away, her face troubled for a moment, before she rallied and began to speak.

"What dost thou know of the current state of affairs amongst Olympus?" She inquired, obviously thinking to start at the beginning of things.

"A little," the golden eyed teen said a shrug, "mostly that, supposedly, the Titan King is planning to take Olympus. Word has it though, it is just in early stages. Gathering forces and resources mainly."

"True," Zoe admitted, "but that is only unofficially. The Sky Lord currently refuses to believe such events are occurring, despite a decent amount of evidence. Which is what has led the enemy to pursue other endeavours."

"Ah," Shirou nodded in understanding, a grim look on his sharp face, "with the denial of the Titan's return, Olympus has not been preparing, which in turn lets the Titan army work in the blind spot unimpeded."

"Yes," Zoe agreed sadly, "but some of the other Olympians have been able to make quiet preparations, mostly for a just in case scenario. A little while ago, Artemis, the Hunters and the rest of us," she gestured to Grover, Percy and Thalia, "stumbled across one of their plots. A beast that can threaten Olympus has finally returned and the Titans seek to harness it's power. In response, Artemis chose to hunt it by herself, seeking to eliminate the threat before it could come to fruition."

Zoe looked at the floor, her face twisted in slight distress and anger. Grover couldn't help but feel for her, having a cherished one placed in danger and up unable to help them is a horrifying prospect. She continued speaking, shaking slightly and more subdued, echoed by the expression on Bianca's face.

"A few nights ago, my dreams were disrupted, showing that Lady Artemis was captured and have since received a prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi in regards to it. That is what we are doing, saving Lady Artemis.

"And you fit a part of the prophecy."

Grover watched as the mysterious teen's eyebrow rose in surprise. Obviously he had not expected that. Grover wasn't either, but he wasn't present for the Oracle's words. The other's, however, while looking surprised at first, let their eyes open wide in realisation. Obviously they had just understood what Zoe had meant.

"_And another shall join you at the throne of man, with golden eyes and swords in hand,_" Thalia quoted, looking at the swordsman as if seeing him for the first time, "well, he certainly fits the bill, though I am not sure what that 'throne of man' business was about."

Surprisingly, it was Percy who gave the answer as Shirou looked like he was in his own little world, trying to process the enormity of what they were saying, "I think it refers to DC. The President of the USA is often seen as the most powerful man on the planet, a King in all but title. That would make DC his throne."

"The man only wishes," Zoe scoffed, a bit of her old man-hating self rising to the fore. Not that Grover could blame her, the current President is pretty egotistical and power hungry, even by an Olympian's standards.

Shirou seemed to bring himself back to the present, his musings and surprise done with, "I don't suppose I could get the full prophecy, word for word?" He requested with a frown. He didn't seem to like the thought that his actions were already planned out and was unable to alter the paths they would take.

Grover could understand that, he felt the same after all, he was just more used to/ accepting of it.

Zoe promptly answered.

"_Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,  
One may be lost in the land without rain,  
And another shall join you at the throne of man,  
With golden eyes and swords in hand,  
Hunter, Camper and sword prevail,  
The bane of Olympus shows the trail,  
The titan's curse must one take kneeled,  
And a heritage thought lost shall be revealed."_

Grover looked at the face of crimson haired swordsman as Zoe recounted the prophecy, and so was the only to see the teen's flinch at the 'Hunter, Camper and sword' line of the prophecy. He wondered why.

"That's..." Shirou seemed to grope for an answer, "ominous, but good. It pretty much guarantees the success of the Quest." He seemed to grimace, "it is not something I am use to."

"That was our thoughts," Zoe nodded in agreement, "but it also spoke of consequences, 'one may be lost in the land without rain'."

Shirou nodded to Zoe in understanding. He was quiet for a moment, looking contemplative, before he sighed briefly.

"I thank you for informing me, even if you had already commandeered my aid," he said seriously before the older looking teen's mouth quirked in a slight grin, a twinkle of mischievous emerging, before taking a brief knee, making an odd expression of recognition, confusion and grief flutter across her face, unseen by any except Grover, "My word is my bond, my lady. And I have given it."

Before Zoe could say anything, her face frozen in shock, Shirou had risen back up before walking off, no doubt to find a good car to rest in. There was silence for a brief moment, before Thalia opened the floodgates with a rich chuckle, followed by snickering Percy and slightly giggling Bianca.

Grover could see the humour in it, calling a Hunter 'my lady' like that, making a reference to the Victorian era females, who were essentially useless, was generally a quick way to get yourself slapped down or killed, and getting away with it is quite an achievement after all. But he didn't feel like laughing, not when he saw the confusion mingled with grief clouding her features as she watched Shirou depart. Whatever she saw or felt when he said those words, it linked with a deep sorrow, his senses, so attuned to the wild, could feel it, even without a connection or link.

He wondered what she saw.

* * *

Shirou slumped into the passenger seat of a dark crimson Ferrari. A 575M Maranello if he wanted to get more precise.

"Why did I do that?" He said to himself, greatly confused.

His actions with the dark skinned Hunter confused him. There was something about her that made him trust her, like she was an old friend, but he was sure he had never even seen her before.

He grunted with pain suddenly, as if an ice pick was driven into his brain and exploded into shards, tearing it apart.

His vision spun, the colour of the world washing away, leaving only a twisted and distorted greyscale vision. His surroundings had changed as well, the Ferrari's interior replaced with a forest clearing, a small pond sitting in the middle, with large stones situated within it, creating stepping stones.

A child's laughter was heard, making Shirou turn his head. The figure was distorted to his eyes, little more than a silhouette of darkness, short and thin, sprinted towards the pond, leaping high when it was on the bank.

"Can't catch me!" A child's voice called from the figure, too indistinguishable for Shirou to decide if it was a boy or a girl, as it landed easily on one of the stones.

"Truly?" A voice, twisted and distorted, came from another figure, much taller than the child, from where it suddenly stood behind the boy, appearing like a ghost.

"Ah!" The child shrieked in surprise, but not fear, trying to leap away again, only to be snatched into the figure's arm, holding the young one close to it's chest, "let me down! Let me go, ###" Shirou heard the child say, the last word twisting and escaping his understanding.

"Fufu," the distorted voice chuckled, a note of merriment heard by the swordsman, "thou will have to do better to escape a Hunter, ########" the voice chastised, the last word escaping Shirou's hearing again.

The child went limp in the figure's arms, seeming to pout soundlessly, letting the taller figure chuckle more and place the child on the next stone over, "I almost lost you," the child complained slightly, as it slumped on to one knee.

"Perhaps," the voice replied amusedly, humouring the child, before continuing, now slightly stern, "but thou did not. Art thou still willing to pay the price for thy failure?"

The childish figure looked up sharply, "My word is my bond, my lady." The child responded, echoing Shirou's earlier words to Zoe, even as the vision slowly began to disappear from Shirou's view.

Shirou came back to himself, aware and seeing his true surroundings once more. His head still pounding like a hammer against an anvil.

He groaned heavily and leaned back in his seat, hoping the monotony of the surging train would lull him into slumber.

"What is happening to me?"

* * *

Well folks, there is the end of the chapter. I know that the fight with the Nemean Lion was not my best work, and I am sorry for that, I just wanted to make sure I kept the ice-cream bit. Also, I know a lot of you are going to complain about the arrows to throat making an almost kill, but in the older legends, Heracles used his club on the lion first, to daze it, before he choked it out. I say it implies that coat cannot be penetrated (godly weapons and NPs aside) but the force of the blow can be transferred to what is beneath it.

I hope you enjoy the foreshadowing as well, because I can tell you this, Shirou's heritage is more than a little odd.

Peace out and please review.

Thanks,  
Kujikiri21


	4. Chapter 4

A Heart of Steel

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Fate/Stay Night.

* * *

Shirou could feel himself dream.

His unconscious mind looked around at the huge cavern he had appeared in, towering high above, the roof lost in the shadows.

Mostly.

The roof seemed to swoop down, creating a slab like pillar, descending from the ceiling. It seemed to strive to reach the earth, groaning deeply as it did.

But it did not.

Beneath that slab of black stone, knelt a woman. Her head was bowed, sweat drenched auburn hair concealing her features as she strove hold up the massive burden. It was obvious that she wasn't there voluntarily, chains of bronze-that-was-not-bronze, identical to the weapons used by the group of half-bloods he had joined, bound her to the black marble floor.

Before he could take in other sights, a hissing roar was heard, like a pit of angry serpents mixed the roar of an enraged beast, followed an indecipherable yelled command from a human voice, making the roar stop abruptly.

Shirou had a bad feeling about what was coming. His mystical senses, dulled as they seemed to be in this dream, alerted him. The scent of flesh and stone was almost overwhelmingly powerful.

He moved quickly to woman's side, hoping he would be able to do something to free her.

He reached for his prana, hoping it would work, only to find that it was out of reach. Like it didn't exist at all.

Futilely, he tried to grasp the chains, only for his hands to pass through them like air. It did seem to draw the attention the woman, making her lift her head for a moment, her moon gleam eyes squinting as if to make him out.

"Who is there?" The woman whispered, strained, but still commanding and powerful, "show yourself!"

Knowing it was a dream, yet also not, he tried to answer, only for nothing to leave his lips. He didn't have a body here, not a true one anyway, and as such he lacked the breath and tongue to speak.

The woman seemed to scowl in anger, her sweat streaked face grimacing and stressed. Her lips opened to obviously demand him to appear once more, only to halt, her frame stiffening beneath the weight she bore.

Then Shirou heard it. The indistinct rumbling of voices, two of them if he could be any judge, growing louder as they approached the cavern's entrance.

The woman **_glared_** at the cave's opening, her eyes so filled with venom that even a basilisk would take a pull in fear. It seemed to Shirou that she knew those voices, and who they belonged to, and they held no favour with her.

"I still think this is unnecessary," a coarse voice rumbled, deep and dark, sounding like rocks grinding each other into dust.

"Perhaps," a softer voice agreed, though no less deep, though it seemed more cultured, syllables coming precise and crisp rather than the casual slur many would use, "but it tis' better to err on the side of caution, cousin," the words were clearer now, but this voice's words were somewhat muffled, though still clearly understandable.

"Hmmm," the craggy voice replied, sounding more like a rock groaning.

"We know they are coming," the muffled voice tried to persuade, the pecking order was quite clear in this conversation, "and we, unfortunately, **_need_** them. Why not keep them off balance? The Spartoi will do a good job, but there is something that concerns me."

"And that is?" The voice rumbled again, this time warning and ominous. He didn't sound like a man that took criticism well.

"We don't know the full contents of the prophecy that the Oracle gave to that little strumpet of yours-"

He was interrupted by the rumbling growl of the other, "speak not of her!" The rock voice snapped in anger, "she will bear my wrath when she comes into my hands. Until then, none shall speak of her!"

"Easy, cousin," the muffled one attempted to placate, assurances in his muffled tones, "I meant nothing by it." It was easy to tell where the balance of power lay between the two.

"Good," the craggy voiced fellow grunted, his voice louder now as two large shadows began to fill the entrance of the cavern, cast off from their real bodies by the light of torches from beyond, "still," the mountain man mused, "you speak the truth," there was a pause as the two shadows, still indistinct, stopped growing, showing the two had halted beyond the entrance, "perhaps some more insurance couldn't hurt. If it dwindles down their numbers, then all the better," the larger shadow of the two turned toward the slightly smaller, but still immense, one, "what did you have in mind?"

Shirou could feel the dream coming to an end, the scene he was shown beginning to lose focus as the last words of the smaller figure were spoken.

"Well," the voice seemed to smirk cruelly, "they _**are**_ all children, are they not?"

The last words spoken ended the dream, plunging the young man into darkness, falling deeper and deeper.

* * *

Shirou woke with a start as a hand touched his shoulder, half-awake and bewildered, his hand wildly lashing out to strike at his perceived assailant.

HOOOOOOONK!

"Aaaaaah!" The dark haired female yelled shock as his fist tearing her head from her shoulders due to a quick movement of her head back out of the open door window, leaving his fist to crunch through the horn, airbag and steering column of the car.

The now wide awake magus panted slightly as he tried to get his breathing, and heartbeat, back under control. He glanced at his fist still implanted deep within the steering wheel. He frowned slightly, feeling no pain at all from the inhumanly powerful blow. On the edge of his senses, almost unseen and unnoticed, his skin seemed slightly more golden, a bare flicker of a glow. A glance in the rear-view mirror showed it becoming an ivory white for a flicker of a second, not like Archer's had been but a different shade of white that sent shivers down his spine, knowing the cause and dreading it.

As he looked in the mirror, he could faintly see the sudden pulse of burning crimson lines, edged with darkness, in designs not unlike tribal tattoos appear on his skin. He could also faintly hear cruel chuckling for a moment before the chain of Enkidu rattled briefly, tightening around his torso and limbs beneath the clothing he wore.

The laughter, the glow, the hair colour and the tattoos abruptly vanished, as if they were never there.

He drew a deep breath, removing his fist from the steering column, feeling tired and slightly weaker despite his rest.

He grimaced. It was getting worse and it was becoming harder and harder to suppress it. It needed almost constant conscious attention to ensure it didn't break out and destroy everything around it. Even Enkidu was having a time and a half keeping it down as it wasn't quite designed for this purpose.

"Geez!" Growled Thalia, who had fallen on her backside due to the frantic movement of throwing herself out of the way of his fist, "what was that for?"

Shirou took a deep breath, relaxing and calm, "Sorry," he said, bringing his hand up to rub his hair sheepishly. He didn't mean to try and hurt her, "it was a reflex."

"Hell of a reflex," she snorted, prickly and annoyed with a trace of fear. She had obviously never seen such a reaction from anyone. Or at least not one that violent and powerful.

"Come on," she said with a 'hurry up' gesture of her hand, "the train's stopped. It's time get off."

Shirou nodded quickly as Thalia left him to it. He quickly got out of the car, ready to follow her.

As he followed, he glanced back with a frown and a scowl, seeing the damaged circuitry and wires that he had destroyed with a simple reflexive blow.

He hoped this loss of control wasn't an omen for what is to come.

* * *

"Well Sunshine certainly knows how to move," Thalia said dryly, looking at the large welcome sign for the town of Cloudcroft, New Mexico.

"With Lady Artemis in danger," explained Zoe, "there is little he would not do," she sighed grudgingly for a moment, "despite the relationship between them, and how they treat one another, they would each protect their sibling with all they had if necessary."

"No kidding," answered Percy as he looked at the snow topped roofs of the small ski town.

"The legends must be true then," Thalia heard the red haired young man, that was their most recent addition to the party, muse to himself quietly.

"Come," the party leader ordered, much to Thalia's distaste, " we must seek out transportation."

As they all began walking behind the briskly moving Hunter, even as she kept an eye out for a bus terminal or a car rental store, her thoughts drifted to the somewhat standoffish, yet polite, and mysterious swordsman, Shirou Emiya.

When she had awoken him that morning, his reaction had scared the ever living hell out of her. The only reason she wasn't a head shorter, or had broken neck, was because of her demi-god battle instincts noticing the movement of his arm in time for her to throw herself away from the blow. It had been a very unwelcome way of discovering more about the young man that had joined them, leaving her with even more questions than answers.

He was extremely skilled and strong, battling the Nemean Lion had made that abundantly clear, able to injure it despite the fact he should have been unable to due to its hide. The way he moved, like a tiger on a hunt, showed that is wasn't a once off occurrence. That meant he was experienced.

Greatly experienced.

Apart from some of his skills (which she would dearly love to be able to use - spamming a multitude of thrown weapons into monster ranks would be an absolute dream for her) she, and by extension the rest of this mismatched group, knew _absolutely nothing about him._

Well she wasn't going to let that stand. She never liked mysteries. One of the reasons she didn't like reading detective novels. Too impatient and the dyslexia didn't help one iota.

"So," she drawled, getting his attention, along with the others, "I have to say I'm a little curious," she tilted her head to the side observing him out of the corner of her eyes.

She may like dealing with situation more directly and in its face, but she also knew how to be somewhat subtle if she needed to...despite what Annie would have said.

A raised eyebrow in question from the red-head encouraged her to go on.

"Your about sixteen, right?" She asked, getting a nod, "so what were you doing at the Space Museum this close to Christmas? Aren't you a slight bit young to working?"

Shirou smiled slightly. It was sincere, much to her surprise, not really having deal with much in the way of positive sincerity. Negative, like hate and hunger, she had seen enough of from the various monsters that had stalked her and her companions years ago.

"I signed up for a Temp agency a while back when we first started living in D.C.," he answered, making her twitch her eyebrows for a moment in thought.

"We?" She inquired.

"Yes, mys..elf...Rin," his voice began to trail off as his healthily tanned skin began to turn pale as milk, the volume of his voice dropping as he almost whimpered the last words, "and...Sa..ber."

The others had stopped as they heard the distress in his voice, turning to see the frozen stiff, like a dress manikin in a store window, form of the newest comrade.

"Oh.._kisama_,"

Thalia may not have known what exactly the odd word meant, but she could feel the emotion behind it and it's probable meaning. Four letters long and rather pungent.

"I just remembered," the now pale scarlet haired man, shown to be a brave and powerful warrior, practically trembled out, "I really, really, need to make an important phone call."

"Can it not wait?" Zoe said, frustrated and angry, "there are much more important issues at hand than informing thou housemates of thy whereabouts."

Thalia had to give credit, however grudgingly, to the Huntress. She was easily able to see to the heart of the request, probably because she was use to looking through the supposed deceptions of men she and her posse encountered.

Talk about suspicious.

Shirou seemed to laugh, almost madly, "Make Saber and Rin wait? After I already haven't come home for dinner?" The laughter increased in hysteria, a line of fear inside the insane merriment, "I would rather face the Father of Monsters, unarmed, naked, trussed up and blindfolded. Alone."

Thalia blinked, as did the others. That... Was a rather steep comparison. Though it did raise questions on why he _feared(?)_ his housemates so much. After all, this was a man who faced the Nemean Lion without even a flinch.

Maybe the housemates were Gorgons?

Thalia felt a sudden chill down her spine, as if all the anger and rage of the world, distilled into one person, a female, glared at her back, wishing her to spontaneously combust.

She shook it off as idle fancy.

Zoe looked perturbed, no doubt thinking along somewhat similar lines herself, "Fine," she sighed, "do as thou wilt, the rest of us will split up. Bianca, go with Jackson, ask about local transportation out of the area. Satyr, with me, sustenance is required and hunger is the enemy," Thalia thought she heard a small start from the red haired boy on the highway to a nervous breakdown, faintly hearing 'we are beset on all sides' before the whimpering restarted.

Baby.

"Grace," the Huntress continued, looking her dead in the eyes, "go with the fool, he looks like he can barely handle himself."

Thank you, very much, Zoe. Not.

Nonetheless, Thalia nodded in assent. Confrontations could come later, when they weren't like sitting ducks in this one horse town.

"Meet back here as soon as thou art done. There is no sense in getting lost in this place. However small it may be."

"Yeah, yeah." Thalia muttered, grabbing the red head's arm and roughly pulling him in the direction of a near by cafe, hopefully they would be willing to let them make a call.

Not five minutes later, Thalia was standing at an end of a small table as Shirou made a call in a quiet corner of a little cafe. She kept her eyes on the window, scanning for whatever may be following them, and her ears pricked towards Shirou, eager for a whatever info she could get her hands on in regards to the red headed enigma.

She heard the click as the otherside was picked up and a muffled greeting.

"Hello, Saber," Shirou said with a sigh, his shoulders tensing as if awaiting a barrage.

He wasn't disappointed.

A blast of sound, indecipherable to the daughter of the Sky, came from the handset. She could almost see the crimson swordsman's hair blast backward at the force of it. It was quickly followed by rapid fire chattering, questioning and swift.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he quickly tried to placate, "I know I should have been home but something came up."

Discontented grumbling followed by a snorted question.

"It has to do with the World Behind the Mist."

Thalia raised a eyebrow at the rather...poetic description, but her eyes never left the window, seeing nothing more than local traffic.

Silence, then serious questioning.

"I have been implicated in a Quest and was picked up by the leader. Something in regards to aiding a trapped Goddess."

Disbelieving spluttering, much to Thalia's understanding (saving a deity isn't exactly part of the regular nine to five, even for a Hero), followed by more questioning.

"It was pretty clear, 'another shall join you at the throne of man, with eyes of gold and swords in hand', translated; it means someone will meet them at Washington DC fitting that description. My first introduction to the group was me using Kanshou and Bakuya against the Nemean Lion."

Thalia frowned a little at the names given. They weren't Greek or English, they sounded like Chinese or something. Not something a demi-god would usually use to name their weapons.

She had a feeling that there was more to names than just them sounding pretty. Though she wondered why on earth he named Mistforms.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Serious questioning now, Thalia thought that this group was finally over the shock. Her brows furrowed suddenly. Though why was he informing his housemates, surely they are not involved in the 'Mist World' as well.

Are they?

"We're going west. Really, really, really far west. Considering the state of affairs of the supernatural world at the moment, my bet is that we will end up somewhere in California. Probably the coast, but that is just a feeling."

Thalia turned slightly, trying to make out the young man. How did he know of the possible destination? Going west was far too vague, how did he get California out of that?

Thalia's eyes narrowed as, instead of questioning, the sounds of understanding were heard, obviously the one on the other end was able to follow the swordsman's train of thought.

"Sounds about right," Shirou nodded in agreement, before sighing, "I don't suppose I can ask you to keep out of it could I? We are saving a Goddess, you know. One of the ruling Authorities of this world," he sighed even deeper, "I have no wish to see either you or Rin hurt. Not when I can prevent it."

Both of Thalia's eyebrows shot up, swiftly turning her head back the window and staring focusedly out of the window even as her ears and the majority of her attention were focused on the conversation. Red believed that the Gods were a danger to his companions? Why? Would that make him an enemy, or at least harbouring the enemy? She didn't know, but she knew she would need to keep an eye on him.

The mumbling was now stern and admonishing, while at the same time reassuring.

He sighed heavily again, sounding weary and tired, "Fine. I won't argue. Take the money needed from the account and book a flight to San Francisco. Hopefully, everything will tie up somewhere in the area. If not? San Fran is a large enough hub of activity that you can get to other places relatively quickly if you Ride."

Thalia was now very confused and suspicious. The emphasis on Ride wasn't missed. But for the life of her she couldn't understand what it meant. It's not like a horse is that fast.

Understanding agreement was followed by a brief silence, before another question was asked.

For the first time, she heard Red react, shifting uncomfortably, the sound of chains echoing again, "It is holding up well enough, but it's taking more and more strength to hold it back, making me weaker, more vulnerable."

Now this was interesting and worrying. Something was wrong with Red? Holding something back? A curse perhaps?

"I almost took the head off of one of my companions. With me currently on a quest, saving a Goddess no less, I have no doubt that I would have to release it, even it is for only a moment or two."

Definitely worrying. Especially since whatever it was had almost made Red rip her head off.

The answer was definitely worried now, firm resolve as hinting in it.

"I'll hold it as long as possible, but it's affecting my craft now. The more I use it, the more of a foothold it takes, I can barely pull a B rank without encroachment," the voice was soft now, despairing, "I have just gained you and Rin in my life. I don't want to lose you, to the Gods or to myself."

Thalia twitched uncomfortably. This was a private conversation, her listening only made possible because of her rather sharp hearing. The moment he had last spoken carried a depth of emotion she had never really seen or heard before.

The was an audible sigh over the phone, before more admonishment and deep explanation, taking more than a minute.

"I know, I know," his response was soft, almost non-existent, before changing slightly, "tell Rin that, if necessary, I will disclose our origins to the rest of the group. All of it."

Thalia blinked. A rather bold decision, but if it meant that this whole misadventure wasn't staggering around in the dark about Red, so much the better.

An odd movement up the road caught her attention, drawing her eye.

She faintly heard the understanding from the phone as her breath caught in slight fear.

She didn't hear the rest of the words from Red as she reached for her can of mace, getting it ready to fight.

"Red," she called, never taking her eyes off the zombie warriors, Spartoi or whatever they were, came down the road, heading for the centre they were supposed to meet. Damn trackers! They must be part dog, "time to go."

Shifting was heard for a moment.

"Ah," he said in understanding, probably also seeing the lantern like eyes of their pursuers, though how the hell they caught up so fast is a mystery for later, "I have to go Saber. The enemy is here."

The phone dropped with a clatter as Thalia and Shirou raced out of the back door of the cafe, racing to help their friends.

* * *

Shirou's face was strained and confused as he ran with the group, making straight for the nearest exit out of Cloucroft, his tall frame looming over the rest of the group as he moved, his longs legs eating up the distance and keeping pace with others...

"The Willlllllld," groaned a satyr's voice next to his ear.

Even if he was burdened with the one hundred and thirty pounds of adolescent and delirious satyr called Grover Underwood.

He and Thalia had been quick to find the rest of the group, getting them moving, only for an odd event to take place.

He had frozen slightly as the scent of power, smelling like trees and animals, had washed over them, all of them reacting in some manner, even as around them, things came to life.

A rubber rat became a real rodent that scurried off. A flock of doves printed on Grover's coffee cup became more than drawings, fluttering high into the sky, cooing as they peeled of the cup.

The satyr had frozen completely, a statue of flesh and blood, before collapsing with a moan and groan, like he was having a fit.

This had stirred the rest of them into action, unfreezing them from whatever influence the wave of power had on them.

Shirou hadn't wasted anytime, scooping the satyr up and throwing him, piggy back style, over his back, the sound of chains rattling beneath his clothes, and sprinting towards the edge of town, with barely even a word.

The others had been quick to follow without argument, saving their breath to run.

They didn't have a true destination in mind, merely just wanting to get out of town in the fastest way possible. Shirou could have possibly made a better plan by himself, if given a few moments, but they were on a time limit and he didn't know his companions at all well, so they just went by their gut, get the hell out of dodge, now.

Glancing just to side, the sight that met the hidden magus had him pulling up abruptly, the rest also halting.

Out of a stand of trees, just on the outskirts of Cloudcroft, emerged two of the beings he had briefly seen at the Space Museum.

Transparent grey skin, eerie glowing yellow eyes and dressed in New Mexico State Police uniforms and carrying, they made a foreboding appearance as they ambushed the group silently, freezing them in place. Shirou cursed heavily in his mind, he should have been able to smell them long before but the damn power in the air was playing havoc with his senses.

"The Wild," Grover moaned again as the first two were swiftly joined by another pair.

"Damn it," Thalia whispered harshly, gripping a can of mace that Shirou was certain wasn't a can of mace, her electric blue eyes glaring daggers at their motionless opponents.

Shirou frowned a moment, casting his eyes about even as the stand off kept going and stretching his clouded senses to their limit. He remembered the group from before. It was much larger then, so where were they?

It was swiftly answered as one of the deadmen drew out a small mobile.

Shirou didn't hesitate. The odds were far from in their favour as is, they didn't need the enemy to obtain reinforcements and make it even worse.

A mental hammer was pulled back and released swiftly, awakening his circuits. Less than a second passed and a nameless deep black dagger was soaring through the air, untouched by human hands.

Tshish!

The phone was shattered and broken as his Traced weapon struck it heavily, rendering it unusable.

The fight started not a moment later.

Percy was first into the ranks, even as the deadmen drew their sidearms, aiming for the charging demigod. A single shot was fired, which was rendered useless by Percy as, in a feat of excellent swordsmanship, his weapon -_Anaklusmos, Riptide_, his mind whispered as it joined the hundreds, the thousands, of other weapons within his soul - reflecting the bullet, before more nameless daggers smashed the weapons from their bony dead hands.

"I will provide covering fire," Shirou spoke quickly, diverting his attention for a moment from the battle in order to inform his compatriots, "and guard Grover, you guys can mix it up."

A series of quick nods and they were off, long range weapons such as the bow abandoned in flavour of spears and knives.

Shirou swiftly refocused, seeing the deadman that the child of Poseidon had sliced apart begin to reassemble, pieces seeming to leap back into place.

"It's near," the satyr burden groaned, Shirou could almost hear the half-goat's eyes roll wildly in his horned skull, "the Wild!"

Shirou frowned as he fired several more daggers with pinpoint precision, avoiding his allies and striking away the baton wielding limbs of the deadmen, leaving them open to what was, ultimately, delaying tactics.

He currently had a three-fold problem. One, his senses were messed up,with the power that surged in the air. This meant that he wouldn't be able to spot any more of these deadmen approaching.

Two, judging from the power in the air, making it seem to be alive and only growing stronger, and the wild mutterings of Grover, something was coming, something big and powerful. This, naturally, made him a little on edge.

Three, these deadmen just refused to stay down. Rip, tear, slash, cut or pierce. Nothing seemed to work.

And with something big approaching, doing battle with immortal enemies is not a good situation to be in.

Whoooosh!

Shirou's eyes snapped to the source of the sound, like the rush of a powerful flame.

Bianca was leaping backward from the source of the flame, a burning deadman, her face bewildered as she gripped her knife tightly. It was but a moment before the remains of the deadman collapsed and vanished.

Vanquished.

"How did you do that?!" Came the cry of the Lieutenant of the Hunt as she fended off another of the deadmen, baton locking with dagger, before she was shoved away with the strength of the dead.

"I don't know," Bianca replied, falling back with her sister in arms, shortly joined by a roughly tossed Percy and retreating Thalia, "Lucky Shot?"

"Well do it again," Percy called, rolling quickly to his feet, his hands clutching his sword tightly.

Shirou focused again, and a swarm of dark daggers, like an over sized volley of bullets, shot forward, missing his allies cleanly and smashing into the chest of the enemy, knocking them away.

Only for them to get back up.

Shirou grimaced tightly in annoyance. It would be so much easier if he could use his Noble Phantasms, but using them risked encroachment. The higher the rank of the weapon he called upon, the more powerful the sickening of his soul, thus limiting his arsenal.

He didn't want to risk becoming the 'Steel' again. It had taken a full day, thirty acres of destroyed forest and almost the lives of Rin and Saber for him to be pulled back from that the first time. The only reason he hadn't returned to that..._Monstrosity_...was because of Rin's magical know-how, Enkidu and returning Avalon to Saber.

As it was, it was only buying time. Time that slowly ran out, like sand through an hourglass, every time he resorted to using his Noble Phantasms. He could use magecraft easily enough, but the damned curse flared up whenever he called upon the weapons of eld.

Considering that the vast majority of his magecraft was based around such weapons, it made him rather vulnerable.

He kept firing the nameless daggers, mere mundane weapons he had encountered over the course of his life and did not trigger encroachment, making the deadmen look like steely pincushions, but his efforts seemed to be ignored now, barely even halting them with every step instead of knocking them over and down like before.

The group was retreating slowly back toward him, their attacks doing little as they were kept at baton range, preventing Bianca from doing what ever it was that she did. They had been fighting for a few minutes now, not long in the world of time, but in a life and death battle in full flow, it was a lifetime.

A lifetime that would run short as their mortal bodies tired and those of the deadmen did not.

Shirou was seriously contemplating using a Noble Phantasm that would definitively put these bags of bones down. Harpe sprang rather quickly to mind. It was low ranked enough that encroachment would be next to nil and easily fought off and would be very useful in the current circumstances.

As he readied it, preparing to launch it from his mind into the real world, everything went pear-shaped. More than it already was anyway.

"It's heeeeere," Grover groaned and moaned loudly, distracting Shirou, "a gift from the Wild!"

"What-!?" He began to ask when the trees behind the deadmen began to crack, creak, shudder and move, like something massive was shoving them aside. The scent of power increased tenfold, practically blanketing the area.

_Oh shit._ Shirou thought wildly, bracing himself.

With an almighty squeal that seemed to be more of a high pitched roar, the thick tree line was shattered, sending trunks and branches flying in pieces more resembling kindling, as the biggest animal Shirou had ever seen in his life emerged.

It was a boar. But a boar the likes of Shirou had never even heard of, let alone seen. Beady red eyes peered from behind tusks that were the size of canoes, enraged and wild. It was easily ten metres tall at the shoulder, the hunched back so typical of such porcine animals giving another three to five feet on top of that.

If it weren't looking so murderous, it would have made for quite the sight.

It looked around wildly at the suddenly still clearing, before bellowing it's rage.

"_REEEEEEEEEET_!" It squealed, thrashing it's tusks. The deadmen were swiftly picked up in the throes of it's wild madness, the tusks catching them with such force as to throw them clear over the trees, vanishing into the side of the mountain in the distance, no doubt shattering their bodies in an instant upon impact.

By then, the others had finally reached even with him, their eyes wide and dumbstruck at the beast that had torn the deadmen apart like tissue paper before them.

Grover had finally managed to cease his fit of madness, struggling and throwing himself from Shirou's back, almost feverish eyes locked upon the great beast, "A blessing from the Wild," he whispered harshly, reverently.

Finished with the deadmen, the massive porcine engine of destruction turned in their direction, squealing lowly.

Bravely, Thalia stood forward, spear at the ready, to fight this massive being of the Wild.

"Don't kill it," Grover said with a hushed whisper, never taking his eyes off of the massive boar, holding her back with a hand around her elbow.

"That beast is the Erymanthian Boar," Zoe said, trying to look unintimidated by the being before them, "I don't think we can kill it."

Shirou felt a chill run down his spine at the name of the identified beast. A beast that had torn down cities, which was very believable considering the enormity of it. To his knowledge, it had never been killed or overpowered, only subdued through trickery by Heracles. A Divine Beast of such power...was not something he was prepared to fight, even the Nemean Lion was less troublesome, an answer to defeat it already available in the stories.

There was little such luck here.

The boar lowered it's head, scraping the dirt beneath it's hooves, ready to charge and gore whatever misfortunate soul that was in it's way.

Which sadly included the Quest.

"It is a gift," Grover repeated, much to his annoyance, "a blessing from the Wild."

The vicious squealing '_REEEEEET_!' and thundering hooves met the satyr's statement, wild red eyes burning brightly as it charged with it's sharp tusks almost gleaming towards them.

"Yeah! I feel blessed!" Perseus called sarcastically, "Scatter!"

They all heeded the sound advice, running out of the way of the massive mammalian engine of destruction, scattering like leaves in a gale as it had charged through the group. Shirou had to grab the delirious satyr and haul him away from the beast.

Crash!

The sound resounded loudly as the beast destroyed the 'Welcome to Cloudcroft' sign with a massive swing of it's tusks, anger in every line of it's trembling body, before turning back to them, slightly confused at the distance they now had from each other.

"Keep moving," Zoe called as the boar charged again, beginning the world's most dangerous game of Keep-away.

Shirou growled lowly in annoyance as he once more had to drag Grover away from danger. The fool was dancing around the massive beast, playing his pipes all the while, narrowly missing being disembowelled by the massive tusks. The words that wanted to erupt from his mouth toward the satyr were caustic on his tongue, but never reached the air as he had to roll beneath the massive beast, avoiding it's sharp tusks and thundering hooves. A brief moment of sweat and churning muscle filling his nose, and he was through, safely on the other side.

A glance back as the sound of an enraged 'REEEEET' sounded once again revealed that two among their number didn't have as much luck.

Perseus and Thalia were charging away, up the side of the mountain, the Erymanthian Boar's attention now locked firmly on the, trampling tree and crushing snow covered boulders as it chased them down.

Swearing quickly, Shirou began chasing after them, followed closely by the others, but knew he would not be able catch up. He may have the option of gutting the boar with an appropriate Noble Phantasm, but the whinings of Grover throughout the encounter warned him something was off, that the massive pig was needed alive and well.

That said, if either of the chased duo has come too any true harm, the pig was dead. Damn the consequences.

The trail of the boar was easy to follow, even as it disappeared from sight amongst the thick forest. The utter destruction it left in it's wake and the continued high pitched squealing that could be heard aiding them all magnificently.

As they ran up the mountain, Shirou use that time to get some answers from the insane seeming satyr.

"What in heaven's name was going on with you, Underwood?" Shirou growled. The fool's actions had endangered many lives, not something he was willing to let go easily. He honestly wondered if this is what Rin and Saber felt during hie earlier days regarding his blindly protective tendencies.

If it was, he would have to remember to get them some damn good chocolate in apology. King or not, magus or not, they were both still female and were still susceptible to the magic the confection could work on the entirety of their gender.

The satyr barely reacted to the steely edge of his question, leaping up the slope like the goat he was, "I wish we could stay here a little longer," the satyr said slightly wistful, ignoring the question, much to Shirou's ire, "the presence was strong here."

"Grover," Shirou growled in warning. He was not in the best of moods. His use of magecraft had slightly loosened the tight reins he had on _IT_. Thus allowing his temper to be slightly awry.

"Didst thou not feel it, boy?" Zoe said with a snort as broken train tracks came into view, leading to a tunnel in the hillside, a line of destruction going straight for it.

Smart move.

"You mean the power wave?" He questioned, "it was hard not to. I don't see what that has to do with our resident satyr suddenly wanting to commit suicide by boar tusk."

"Baaaa," brayed Grover, "anyone with a strong a link to the Wild as I would have done the same," he seemed to shiver slightly in remembrance, "it was a clue that we satyrs have been searching for, across land and sea, forest and plain, for over two thousand years."

Wide eyes turned to the swordsman, filled with longing and hope and joy, "Our lord still breathes. The Wild still exists," he brayed in heartfelt laughter again, "Pan. Is. Alive."

* * *

Shirou reminded himself, again, for the third time in the last five minutes, sternly, never to become a cowboy.

He didn't think his body could take it.

They had eventually found the wayward duo of Percy and Thalia, in the snow at the bottom of a ravine that was partially spanned by a now broken railway line. Right beside them, in a snowdrift as deep as it was tall, was the Erymanthian Boar. Their gift from, apparently, Pan, the God of the Wild.

And their next mode of transport for the still long journey ahead.

They had quickly leapt on, before it could make it's way out of the snow, and, with a little wild magic and a floating apple, were riding west towards Arizona.

The speed they moved at was breathtaking, many of them barely able to hold on, but managing to do so. Through hill and dale, they thundered, trusting in The Lord of the Wild to steer the massive boar in the right direction.

But, despite the speed, it wasn't the most welcoming ride.

They flesh of the boar had little give, making them feel every bump and thundering step like it was a car going over road full of nothing but potholes, shaking them like maracas and bruising their rumps and thighs with every movement. The bristly hairs also made it feel like they were getting scrubbed by steel mesh.

But that wasn't the worst worry. Something more sinister lurked out of sight.

Shirou frowned heavily as the boar made it's way across the Arizona State Line, their route changing from snowy mountains to a bleak desert almost as far as the eye could see. There was no cover out there, just an endless vista of emptiness.

Considering their foes, now would be an excellent time for an ambush. With few hiding spots, they were out in the open, sitting ducks and easy prey, if it were not for them riding a boar bigger than most family homes.

He frowned even deeper in worry. He hadn't mentioned it to the others, but there was a small scent, a flash of power, that he had been sensing on and off since they had gotten out of the mountains. It was weak, barely even there at all, but his senses were sharp enough to spot it now and again. Problem was, if it was truly as weak as he could feel it was, the it wouldn't have been able to keep up with the rampaging boar. This led to a more frightening conclusion.

It was far enough away that he could sense the power but still think it weak distance distorting it's true strength, thus meaning that, when it approached closer, he would get a more accurate reading on it's threat level. But the fact he could sense it all at such a possible distance, didn't bode well.

They were being hunted, and the predator was powerful. Strong enough that it may be willing to even face the porcine engine if destruction they currently rode.

As if on cue, several minutes into the barren desert, an unholy howl, full of hunger and rage, tore through the air, almost jolting everyone out of their positions on the pig, save for Shirou, his eyes alert and nose snuffling to get a scent of the source of the noise.

The boar was not unaffected either, squealing slightly and swinging it's tusked head around in order to search for the source of something that had challenged it, all the while still running for the elusive apple.

"What the Styx was that?" Thalia cried out, also searching for source of the sound, as were the others.

Another long howl, just as powerful as the last, made them all turn to the south even as the massive boar squealed loudly in challenge and anger.

The source was difficult to make out, a series of crimson red flashes within a massive dust cloud on the horizon, move swiftly and getting larger by the moment.

"What on earth?" Questioned Bianca as she fumbled for her bow as the boar still kept moving onwards, spurred by The Lord of it's realm. The dust cloud changed it course slightly, running almost parallel with them but also placing itself on an intercepting course to cut them off.

Shirou frowned again, taking a deep breath, hoping to identify what he smell.

He hissed slightly, his nose a looms burning by the force of the howler's power and choked on the powerful scent of old blood, children and something like a dog or cat reaching his nostrils. It was a disgusting scent and he had a feeling that the originator was even worse.

"Prepare thouselves," Zoe declared, calmly unlimbering her now with practiced ease. Shirou knew she wouldn't have a full draw, but when riding a mount, ranged weapons were the way to go.

Shirou set himself, the hammer of a pistol pulled back, ready to fire, as he awaited whatever fresh beast of hell had decided to dog their heels.

* * *

Hey folks. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know it wasn't my best work, but it was a chapter that needed to be done to lay the groundwork for the various adversaries that Shirou will face as a result of returning to his home world. I have already introduced one of them, in fact it is Shirou's rival/enemy/anti-thesis of what have you on the Titan side of the conflict. A special cookie for whoever can guess who it is. He will make another brief appearance in this book when they arrive at Othrys, but he will not fight Shirou then, but he will in next book and the last one. Shirou will have his own adversary to face when he arrives at Othrys while the others fight Atlas. Most of the Boar fight was paraphrased from the book, but I needed it done so I can use my own original scene. next chapter, cross-country destruction derby of Boar vs Mysterious Beast. Also, try and guess the beast if you can, i gave you enough clues.

Please review.

kujikiri21


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